> I don't see how the world's ~sixth largest economy succeeding from the world's 1st/2nd largest is good for the latter. I'm not advocating for the separation

> I don't see how the world's ~sixth largest economy succeeding from the world's 1st/2nd largest is good for the latter. I'm not advocating for the separation of California, but... I think we can only claim this for certain if our optimization target is size of the economy, in which case no separating from a larger economy would be bad for California. Most entities would be very happy to be the 6th largest economy in the world, I'd guess there are only 5 countries that wouldn't be so keen on it. Quality of life is comparably very good in many countries with smaller economies than the United States. I'd speculate that this is due to the smaller geographic region occupied by the country, and the lower rate of dispersion across the political spectrum amongst citizens. California would achieve both of these in a succession. California has a lot of issues both social and political that diverge from the opinion of most other states. Political correctness, immigration, etc... Again I'm not saying California should divorce itself from the United States, only that I can see why someone might have such an opinion. > I hope he's just trolling here. Preferring a future of the same old debtors and creditors as today, to one where plentiful energy can be transformed into any kind of matter the human race needs, eliminating the need for money? Probably not, historically he's been pretty capitalist.