PART 1
Yes, we have considered moving there (from Alberta)...
...I'd rather live in Mexico... sure, most people do not have the
latest iPad and/or drive a $80,000 SUV, but family rules, weather is
better, food is better, and opportunity... if you can speak Spanish
well and understand the culture well, the sky is the limit... and you
can live very well in Mexico with less $ than here... plus I do feel
kinship with my Mexican cousins, what can I say? Twinned history
weighs heavily in our hearts and all that... (at least for me it's
true!)
I have felt safer walking around Durango on my own at 1am than I would
in most British town centres or most large cities in the US... yes,
there are issues with narcos in Mexico... everybody is FED UP with
them, narcos have little (if any) popular support these days... most
people just want to be able to go to work so they can spend weekends
with their families, maybe go out for lunch on Sundays... it seems to
be happening.
PART 2
Our friend Hussein is going to finish bankrupting the US... *IF*
society does not re-elect his successor in 4 years time, it will still
take 20 years for the US to climb out of the pit... if ever again...
now, I am not surprised Romney lost... not a mainstream candidate (I
have heard too many swing people say they hated Obama but equally did
not like Romney... this people probably did not vote, hence handing a
victory to Hussein)...
Again, I think the US would do best to split up into a successful core
(i.e. most of the MidWest, Texas) and two coastal, socialist polities,
one being loopy (and eventually bankrupt) and likely to be gobbled up
by Mexico culturally then physically (West Coast), the other one a
europhile soft Socialist polity (the East Coast) that will do OK,
though not as well as the old US... my thoughts, anyways...
I have heard a lot of people thinking that everyone would be better off if the US split up. I disagree. Assuming that the US is split up along those lines proposed, this would an effect Europanize the American continent. A study of European history has shown that after the Roman empire finally gave up the ghost, after a century or two of decline, these things have happened:
ReplyDeletea) Tremendous infighting btween the polities over resources, geopgraphic locations, and cultural imbalances due to the demographics of this nation. It isn't like everyone in Washington State is a progressive and everyone in Nebraska a conservative. Bloody borders you could call and this state of affairs lasted for almost 2000 years until today.
b) Assuming there isn't terrible infighting then you will simply have a repeat of what is happening today. Progressives fleeing their corrupt and impoverished lands for greener pastures of the heartland, repeating that political cycle. And since I consider Mexicos assent based on far shakier ground than Americas, a repeat of the immigration pattern. If the race realists are right, and I hope they aren't, then return to step a)
I disagree. We should go to a system where each congressional district counts as 1 electoral vote and abolish the winner-take-all system. To thin the blood of the big-states and make it so candidates can't consider big-states a lost-cause anymore.
ReplyDeleteWell done. The American public has condemned the planet. The masses have voted for Bread and Circuses, and the rest of the planet must suffer the consequences of your folly. Myself, I'm not surprized, elections are only a "pick-a-dictator" game. Read "The Machinery of Freedom" by David Friedman.
ReplyDeleteIuvenis: A split whereby the more economically literate nation takes the existing constitution and enshrines certain parameters (such as a limit on tax revenue as a percentage of GDP - say 20%, and heck, why not a flat tax) might serve as a firewall that would force the inevitable tax & spend do gooders to live within tight restrictions.just a thought.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't need to be total split, just push for decentralized authority, let every state set their own rules to the greatest extent possible. Let California become a socialist utopia, let Texas be gun-nut heaven, whatever. Stop trying to homogenize the entire country to a single culture.
ReplyDeleteThis also lowers the hurdles to moving out of communities you consider toxic to your values. Expating to another country is a big step, to another jurisdiction within the same country much less so.
I moved from a west-coast socialist nuthouse to a moderately right-wing midwest city (originally for school and work), and it's definitely made my life better being around people who generally hold the same broad values as I do, as opposed to being considered a deranged crackpot.
Let everyone live as they want to, whether it's as a good soviet comrade or an unrepentant good ol' boy. And when all the People's Republics go bankrupt, it's that much more difficult for them to blame the capitalists for their problems.
V10 -
ReplyDeleteWashington would never go for decentralized authority a.k.a. state's rights. We're in fact going the opposite way.
If we do split the nation, I'd like the middle of the country - we have the food and the missiles/silos. just kidding.
Hmm, the each congressional district counting as one electoral college vote is interesting, but I think the Democrats wouldn't go for that. It would also provide more motivation for manipulating congressional districts.
Now that the Democrats control the governor, house and senate in the state of Minnesota, expect us to move back into the top 3 for taxes.
Enjoy the decline.