Should the South secede?

[DaShi]

9/10

[giblets]

Simply being in a different sovereign jurisdiction is a massive barrier to trade. If they adopted their own currency, and they surely would, that would be another massive barrier.

Is it really that hard to establish a free trade zone and common currency? It would be like the Eurozone, except without the massive amounts of fail. Texas would probably want the Alamo or something stupid on their currency, but if sharing a currency with the rest of the US works I don't see why they couldn't peg their dollars to the USD. Any trade restrictions would hurt Texas more than it would hurt the US.

[Hauldren Collider]

Have you considered the thought that they might want to be able to control their own interest rates?

Note, by the way, that we have a free trade zone with Mexico and Canada and that doesn't stop there being significant trade barriers.

[Ben Kenobi]

It would be like the Eurozone

Aw hell, no!

[giblets]

Have you considered the thought that they might want to be able to control their own interest rates?

Note, by the way, that we have a free trade zone with Mexico and Canada and that doesn't stop there being significant trade barriers.

Do they actually need interest rates that are different? It doesn't seem like Texas is that far out of sync with the rest of the country's economy. If currency fluctuations actually restricted trade that badly I don't see why they would decide it's in their interest to do so. And I don't see another country's exercise of monetary independence to be much of a threat to our interests. If the US gets into a bad recession, being able to depreciate the currency relative to Texas dollars is advantageous. How much would it really cost businesses to exchange the currencies?

[Ben Kenobi]

Do they actually need interest rates that are different?

Given that Texas is AAA and the US is not? Yeah, they do. Texas could become the Switzerland of North America with sound fiscal policy and solid interest rates. It's advantageous to Texans to have control over their own fiscal policy.

[regexcellent]

Do they actually need interest rates that are different? It doesn't seem like Texas is that far out of sync with the rest of the country's economy. If currency fluctuations actually restricted trade that badly I don't see why they would decide it's in their interest to do so. And I don't see another country's exercise of monetary independence to be much of a threat to our interests. If the US gets into a bad recession, being able to depreciate the currency relative to Texas dollars is advantageous. How much would it really cost businesses to exchange the currencies?

Why wouldn't they just stay part of the Union then?

[giblets]

Why wouldn't they just stay part of the Union then?

If they generally have different taxation and government spending preferences than the rest of Americans, that could be a reason. Or they could apply the death penalty to more things.

[Hauldren Collider]

Isn't that what we have state governments and federalism for?

[giblets]

Isn't that what we have state governments and federalism for?

Somehow the federal government ended up spending a quarter of the GDP.

[regexcellent]

Somehow the federal government ended up spending a quarter of the GDP.

Well then start with fixing that and decentralizing power before you start suggesting that states should just secede.

[giblets]

I didn't say Texas should secede. I said Texas should be kicked out.

[kentonio]

Well then start with fixing that and decentralizing power before you start suggesting that states should just secede.

Isn't the whole point of this thread that half the country doesn't feel any need to start hacking up the federal budget? The two sides are at complete ideological opposites, so why not go their seperate ways and each follow their own chosen path?

[giblets]

Reminds me of this:

[Kidlicious]

No, you idiot. The only reason many states in the south get more in federal dollars than others is because the military units are stationed there. If they were stationed in the North, the situation would be reversed.

But why am I arguing with you? You're one of the dumbest dip****s on this board.

You're arguing with me because you are wrong as usual, another econ fail, and you can't understand why you are wrong. If you paid their salaries you would have to borrow money or increase taxes. Seeing as though you don't have as much revenue as the North you couldn't pay their salaries. You would have to increase your tax burden compared to GDP even more than the current US ratio.