USA without planet Earth

[Heraclitus]

So in the blink of an eye the United States of America as it exists right now is placed on a imaginary Earth where humans have been extinct since the late stone age. To the Americans it seems like every country in the world has instantly reverted to a pristine natural state without any infrastructure or population and with undepleted resources. They have no instant explanation, but assume that with a few months of research they could realize they were dropped off on a alternative Earth.


The consequences should be very interesting.

[Igloodude]

Actually the consequences would be fairly boring. The economy would rattle a bit, and the military would suddenly be virtually unnecessary, and I suppose the real estate market would flatten, but otherwise ho hum.

[Heraclitus]

Originally posted by Igloodude
Actually the consequences would be fairly boring. The economy would rattle a bit, and the military would suddenly be virtually unnecessary, and I suppose the real estate market would flatten, but otherwise ho hum.

Rattle a bit, might be an understatement.

Don't forget a stall in technological development, no exports/imports, no cheap foreign labour.... The effect of this on the upcoming elections. The months with no explanation, and the religious frenzy that follows that... and so on.

Even if you ignore that, what kind of future history might this planet have?

[lord of the mark]

Re: USA without planet Earth

Originally posted by Heraclitus
So in the blink of an eye the United States of America as it exists right now is placed on a imaginary Earth where humans have been extinct since the late stone age. To the Americans it seems like every country in the world has instantly reverted to a pristine natural state without any infrastructure or population and with undepleted resources. They have no instant explanation, but assume that with a few months of research they could realize they were dropped off on a alternative Earth.


The consequences should be very interesting.

The few folks in the US who have backyard solar plants are very happy.

Of course we can go grab oil (do we KNOW that the resources are undepleted?) but exploiting it quickly is gonna be a challenge - its not like we've got a huge steel industry. Although this becomes the priority usage for steel, by far. BTW, have all the worlds merchant fleets (other than those in US ports, or US waters) gone also? We badly need tanker capacity to get that oil back, and we DONT have a huge shipbuilding industry. Though again, this will be the priority for the shipyards we do have. And if we focus on Canada and Mexico first, all we need are pipelines.

Btw, hang on to your electronics, since we've lost not just the assembly plants, but the main memory chip plants as well.

And of course just when we need labor to build all the industry that we dont have, there are gonna be folks heading out into the wild, whether to find gold (in South Africa, Australia, etc) or to create various new and odd communities, or whatever.

Its actually gonna be messier than one might think.

[Ari Rahikkala]

I don't think they'd notice.

[lord of the mark]

I mean basically youve got 300 million people or so, and a helluva lot of key industries to start. And you have to keep ag, mining, and most of current US industry going. Expect almost everyone doing non-urgent stuff, from hollywood to academia to to the space program to govt, to be shifted into urgent stuff. Labor is VERY tight. Capital is too (though at least we dont have to pay back all those nasty debts), only thing that isnt is food.

Im not sure you have the labor force to maintain 2007 technological levels. OTOH robotics is urgent, as it could help you out of the labor shortage.

Birth control will be discouraged.

Folks will want to head out into the wilderness to live off grid, as individuals or communes, but govt may discourage, both so they dont get in the way, and cause labor is needed.

[Kontiki]

Do all the illegal immigrants get to stay? If not, there's going to be alot of untidy lawns and gardens and kids without nannies.

[Whoha]

from the PLIF:

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Kontiki
Do all the illegal immigrants get to stay? If not, there's going to be alot of untidy lawns and gardens and kids without nannies.

There will be untidy lawns, cause the illegals (a term that will now be meaningless) will all be sent to work in the new factories.

Given the need to have lots more children, and to have women in the labor force, expect either communal child care, or the return of extended families - grandma cant afford to live in Miami anymore, but she CAN come home and take care of the grandkids.

[Kuciwalker]

Btw, hang on to your electronics, since we've lost not just the assembly plants, but the main memory chip plants as well.

I'm pretty sure there are enough fabs in the US that we wouldn't lose the tech.

[Proteus_MST]

Originally posted by Ari Rahikkala
I don't think they'd notice.

There will be no internet untill the necessary infrastructure is established on the new planet.
So at least those americans which formerly had internet access might wonder why they don´t get any connection

[Igloodude]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
I mean basically youve got 300 million people or so, and a helluva lot of key industries to start. And you have to keep ag, mining, and most of current US industry going. Expect almost everyone doing non-urgent stuff, from hollywood to academia to to the space program to govt, to be shifted into urgent stuff. Labor is VERY tight. Capital is too (though at least we dont have to pay back all those nasty debts), only thing that isnt is food.

Im not sure you have the labor force to maintain 2007 technological levels. OTOH robotics is urgent, as it could help you out of the labor shortage.

Birth control will be discouraged.

Folks will want to head out into the wilderness to live off grid, as individuals or communes, but govt may discourage, both so they dont get in the way, and cause labor is needed.

How can government discourage it? Build an enormous wall on the Mexican and Canadian borders? And if they're going out into the wilderness on other continents, or Pacific islands, or whatever, they're going to be simply out of reach, particularly given their off-the-grid-ness.

Anyway, I take back my earlier post - it isn't a boring thread.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker

Btw, hang on to your electronics, since we've lost not just the assembly plants, but the main memory chip plants as well.

I'm pretty sure there are enough fabs in the US that we wouldn't lose the tech.

Im not saying we wouldnt know how to do it, but we wouldnt be producing much for awhile. We could of course build new big facilities - at the same time we dramatically expand the steel industry, the shipbuilding industry, and send thousands of folks out to drill in Canada and Mexico. Theres simply too much you have to do all at once.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Igloodude


How can government discourage it? Build an enormous wall on the Mexican and Canadian borders? And if they're going out into the wilderness on other continents, or Pacific islands, or whatever, they're going to be simply out of reach, particularly given their off-the-grid-ness.

Uh, send bounty hunters out, who get to enslave anyone they catch?? Depending on how much you need em, there are lots of options.

[Riesstiu IV]

Actually that sounds kind of fun to re-explore and resettle everything. Many places of our current earth have become a stinking, overcrowded crapholes. It would be refreshing to have it all back in a "pristine state" and exploit it all over again.