Quake3World

Divide the union into 4 or 5 smaller states. Let the south and midwest live happily with their private health insurance plans. Let the coasts finally move on with universal health care and devote the freed up 10% of their GDP to more productive things in life. Too bad we worship Lincoln.

Did this statement deserve it's own thread, or could it have gone in the Health Care thread? I don't know, I'm torn...

I meant it to apply not only to the problem of health care but to other problems with America, such as the citizenship having little influence on foreign policy... so thought this might deserve its own thread (not that I think this is the first time this idea has been brought up here).

If America were divided up, an event like 9/11 would likely have united the sub-americas into supporting the Afghanistan War, but perhaps there would have been no alliance when it came to the Iraqi War... I don't see the northeast or west supporting the Iraqi War with a "slam dunk" nor do I think the propaganda behind the buildup would have worked as well if we had sub-americas that had complete control over their own armed forces.

Once a stupid president puppet is put into place, there is little checks or balances in the system. Sub-american states, that have full control over their own military and civilian expenses, would provide a better check.

Sounds like you hate America.

Hate is such a strong word.

I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

As goes California, so goes the nation...

mjrpes got some dank weed y'all

Has any nation in history ever split itself without a war or external influence?

Checkoslovakia.

I agree with mrherpes

obsidian wrote:I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

no offence.

yea after a while of turning the attention into itself maybe it'll re-invent itself in a mega-awesome form!

Who the fuck's this "Lincoln" guy?

Peenyuh wrote:Who the fuck's this "Lincoln" guy?

He is genuinely asking.

Who gets what part of our debt?

https://www.cia.gov/library/publication ... 7rank.html

Highest debt of ALL countries. 3.7x the next highest.

Just print more money. Like Zimbabwe.

Don't confuse negative trade balances with debt (public, private, or national). The former isn't a priori bad. More information is typically required to make that judgment (where bad means social welfare diminishing).

However, US debt-to-GDP is fairly high at ~75% and its' rate of debt growth quite concerning.

Pre-financial maelstrom stats:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co ... ublic_debt
(*Click OECD column twice to order from most to least*)

obsidian wrote:Just print more money. Like Zimbabwe.

or britain

"quantitative easing"

i gotta get me some of that

mjrpes wrote:Divide the union into 4 or 5 smaller states. Let the south and midwest live happily with their private health insurance plans. Let the coasts finally move on with universal health care and devote the freed up 10% of their GDP to more productive things in life. Too bad we worship Lincoln.

Lincoln was right though; the strength of the US is in it's size.