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I can't see why the same logic couldn't applied to any country selling any piece of its land. Why doesn't the United States sell Pennsylvania? Why doesn't the U

by qq66 11y ago

I can't see why the same logic couldn't applied to any country selling any piece of its land. Why doesn't the United States sell Pennsylvania? Why doesn't the United Kingdom sell Trafalgar Square?

krallja 11y ago
Nobody has an offer as good as the one the U.S. made to Denmark.
GFK_of_xmaspast 11y ago
Who the hell wants Pennsylvania.
gwern 11y ago
It doesn't apply because some areas are worth far more, and are worth far more in conjunction with others. First, Pennsylvania is a well-developed and rich state, which was at the heart of American industrialization (names like Carnegie will ring a bell), and had and still has many natural resources: Pennsylvania was the start of American oil drilling and even now is yielding lucrative profits in the form of fracking for natural gas (to the point where my uncle remarks on how many of his patients are suddenly rich off royalties). It's in the top 10 of American states by GDP. The net present value of Pennsylvania is enormous. Note the stark contrast with Denmark & Greenland: where Greenland might have commercially exploitable resources and those resources may be substantially profitable one day and perhaps those profits will redound to the Danish people & government and who knows the share could be large enough to repay all the opportunity cost and risk and subsidies, Pennsylvania has been extremely important to the American economy, is now, and will be for quite some time to come. Secondly, Pennsylvania is worth far more as part of the USA than as part of any other country & an enclave: countless roadways, railways, and rivers flow through it, it's near the ocean, the people of it speak the same language and have the same culture as the surrounding states, which directly border on it with few or no natural barriers, it needs to import and export heavily with them, and so on. If it were part of another country, subject to entirely different regulations and laws and politics and using a different currency and imposing a border on all movements, it would be much poorer than it is now. In the same way that Greece is not in an optimal currency zone combined with Germany and it makes no sense for the USA to still own Puerto Rico and some other places, Pennsylvania is in an optimal currency zone with the USA.

by qq66 11y ago

I can't see why the same logic couldn't applied to any country selling any piece of its land. Why doesn't the United States sell Pennsylvania? Why doesn't the United Kingdom sell Trafalgar Square?

krallja 11y ago

Nobody has an offer as good as the one the U.S. made to Denmark.

GFK_of_xmaspast 11y ago

Who the hell wants Pennsylvania.

gwern 11y ago

It doesn't apply because some areas are worth far more, and are worth far more in conjunction with others. First, Pennsylvania is a well-developed and rich state, which was at the heart of American industrialization (names like Carnegie will ring a bell), and had and still has many natural resources: Pennsylvania was the start of American oil drilling and even now is yielding lucrative profits in the form of fracking for natural gas (to the point where my uncle remarks on how many of his patients are suddenly rich off royalties). It's in the top 10 of American states by GDP. The net present value of Pennsylvania is enormous. Note the stark contrast with Denmark & Greenland: where Greenland might have commercially exploitable resources and those resources may be substantially profitable one day and perhaps those profits will redound to the Danish people & government and who knows the share could be large enough to repay all the opportunity cost and risk and subsidies, Pennsylvania has been extremely important to the American economy, is now, and will be for quite some time to come. Secondly, Pennsylvania is worth far more as part of the USA than as part of any other country & an enclave: countless roadways, railways, and rivers flow through it, it's near the ocean, the people of it speak the same language and have the same culture as the surrounding states, which directly border on it with few or no natural barriers, it needs to import and export heavily with them, and so on. If it were part of another country, subject to entirely different regulations and laws and politics and using a different currency and imposing a border on all movements, it would be much poorer than it is now. In the same way that Greece is not in an optimal currency zone combined with Germany and it makes no sense for the USA to still own Puerto Rico and some other places, Pennsylvania is in an optimal currency zone with the USA.