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Had to look up the stats on this. Around the time the constitution was written, about 5% of the US population lived in cities. It's over 80% today. I think t

Had to look up the stats on this. Around the time the constitution was written, about 5% of the US population lived in cities. It's over 80% today. I think the intent of having the Senate represent the states equally regardless of population was a good one, but the massive shift in demographics over the last 200 years probably merits a different approach. I don't think going strictly by population density is the best approach either, though - that's a good way to completely alienate millions of Americans. Remember that the two branches of Congress were setup like this to force urban and rural communities to work together and compromise. The problem now is that tribalism has become so rampant on both sides that compromise no longer really happens.

peteradio 7y ago
What was the economy difference between founding states? I don't care about rural urban divide. I care about states that can effectively be purchased by a rich individual having same say as states with country sized economies. At the time of founding individual states were bringing something to the table.
- mdorazio 7y ago
  We could look at state-level GDP as one measure, but I don't think it's as clear-cut as you think - see [1]. There's a significant amount of money in farming, livestock, and manufacturing, which tend to cluster in "cheap" states. I think you make a good point about concentration of wealth at the state level, though. There's probably a case to be made that rural states are more susceptible to control by a few individuals/corporations that make up large segments of the state's economic output. It's worth noting that economic inequality is usually higher in states with bigger economies, though [2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_GDP https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territ... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_Gini_coefficient https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_Gini_co...

peteradio 7y ago

What was the economy difference between founding states? I don't care about rural urban divide. I care about states that can effectively be purchased by a rich individual having same say as states with country sized economies. At the time of founding individual states were bringing something to the table.

mdorazio 7y ago
We could look at state-level GDP as one measure, but I don't think it's as clear-cut as you think - see [1]. There's a significant amount of money in farming, livestock, and manufacturing, which tend to cluster in "cheap" states. I think you make a good point about concentration of wealth at the state level, though. There's probably a case to be made that rural states are more susceptible to control by a few individuals/corporations that make up large segments of the state's economic output. It's worth noting that economic inequality is usually higher in states with bigger economies, though [2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_GDP https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territ... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_Gini_coefficient https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_Gini_co...