I think a referendum should be launched asking Californians if they would rather be governed by Denmark or Washington. Given the lack of enthusiasm for the current US government who knows how it would go.
I think a Californian secession (as absurd as that idea is) would look very different from Brexit. For one California has no control over the vast majority of the taxes paid within the state because it goes to the Federal government, which then spends most of it in other states. This has caused a lot of negative effects like the collapse of highway funding in the 70s leading to the dire traffic we have today with lots of other compounding effects. It’s the fifth biggest economy in the world on its own, so all of that tax funding going to the state would be a massive improvement over the current state of affairs. Overall, California could probably lower the overall tax rate on its citizens while implementing policies like universal healthcare.
I don’t think the economic disruption would be as great because for one, California’s regulatory regime is already one of the strictest in the country and due to its size, most companies (like car manufacturers) already follow them so that they don’t bifurcate their markets. Second, California produces half the domestic produce in the country so food security for the nation would be on the table.
Obviously this is a ridiculous thought experiment. There is no article 50 in the constitution and it’d probably start another civil war (that said, some of the largest weapons caches in the country are in California)
Great timing, go for them them just after they've suffered a horrible catastrophe. Still, the economy of California is remains like 8x larger than that of Denmark. Make an offer I guess, it can't hurt.
> Great timing, go for them them just after they've suffered a horrible catastrophe
What if Denmark helped cause the catastrophe to drive the price down?
They could be part of the "globalist plot to wage economic warfare and deindustrialize the United States" that Alex Jones claims the California fires were part of, and that Elon Musk said is true.
How about starting small ? People in my state would love to have our State sold to Denmark. As a bonus, I think it could be the closest or maybe 2nd closest state to Denmark!
Cute. Seriously though, it'd be cheaper to fund (or crowdfund) a super PAC to send out lobbyists to conduct political interference and gerrymandering in the desired direction. Giving out 1 kg gold bars apparently isn't socially-acceptable but lobbyists and "support" are okay.
Looking at what it costs to put a politician into your back pocket, I would assume that it costs way less than a trillion dollars to buy a country, let alone a state. 10-20 billion should suffice.
I disagree: a big reason Beijing is so keen to unite all the Chinese-speaking (Chinese-writing to be exact) lands under its rule is that Chinese history shows that when China is divided into multiple polities, war frequently breaks out between them and rivals like Japan can keep China weak by playing one polity off against another.
1. So if the problem is that war frequently breaks out between them, then in order to fix it, China is (or at least seems to be) willing to go to war with Taiwan? The cure is the disease.
2. China is not all of humanity and all of history. I cite the US and Canada as a counterexample.
States are heavily subsidized by the federal government - I believe California pays in way more than it gets. You're going to have all the GDP walk away and be left with a ton of sorry states. It's entirely unfeasible.
