5 ms·

An appropriate way to welcome visitors to the city they fund.

munk-a 4y ago
I think if you asked DC whether they'd rather continue to be funded by federal income and burdened by the national politics that constantly dictate what they can and can't do - or whether they'd prefer to enjoy the same level of freedom that other US cities enjoy they'd choose the former. In fact I don't think - I know - DC statehood has been a hugely locally popular movement for quite some time. Just because you bought someone a coffee after punching them in the gut doesn't mean they appreciate your patronage.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- andlarry 4y ago
  > DC statehood has been a hugely locally popular movement for quite some time. I'm sure many locales with 670k residents would love to become states, that'd be a pretty sweet deal.
  - kube-system 4y ago
    Vermont and Wyoming have fewer residents.
    - munk-a 4y ago
      Hey, as a former Vermonter I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell everyone that. Do you want us to take away Bernie? /s
    - andlarry 4y ago
      Indeed. 436 states, here we come!
      - kube-system 4y ago
        If we granted statehood to every federal territory that has more residents than Wyoming, we'd have 52.
        deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]
        andlarry 4y ago
        Why choose the least populous state as the standard for admission instead of, say, the median?
        munk-a 4y ago
        Probably to give your argument as many points in its favor as possible - which is quite difficult considering how absurd your comment was. You originally said "436 states here we come" - even going by the lowest bar we currently have we'd only have two additional states.
        kube-system 4y ago
        Only 28 of our current states have a population above the median population of all US states and territories. I don't think the other 22 states would be wild about that admission standard.
        andlarry 4y ago
        > I don't think the other 22 states would be wild about that admission standard. We have a well established process for asking states about this sort of thing, the US Congress. They don't seem to be wild about the minimum populous state standard, we should ask about the median populous state standard.
- nradov 4y ago
  A better option would be to transfer the residential neighborhoods of DC to existing states, and keep only the area around the Capitol and White House under federal control.
  - munk-a 4y ago
    I actually completely agree - I think that it'd be far more fair to residents of the DC metro area if the whole city was just merged into either VA or MD (ideally the entire metro area would end up being moved into one of the states entirely - so maybe MD would be granted Arlington and Alexandria - or VA would get a chunk of MD... but either way I think it'd be far better for DC if it weren't this weird quasi-federal zone. I also don't think that proximity really confers any undo influence at this point - so if the federal buildings just became federal property within the state of VA/MD similar to thousands of other federal properties that'd probably be fine.
  - dragonwriter 4y ago
    > A better option would be to transfer the residential neighborhoods of DC to existing states The Virginia part was already retroceded in 1847, less than 60 years after the creation of the district; retroceding the Maryland part is a pretty common Republican alternative to D.C. statehood since pressure began for it (though it is opposed by both Maryland and D.C. residents who have 232 years of separate history.)
r00fus 4y ago
DC is a blue "state" they fund other states via taxes more than the inverse.
- pseudo0 4y ago
  The main employer in DC is the federal government, and those jobs are paid for by the rest of the country's taxes...
  - kube-system 4y ago
    27% of the people in DC work for the federal government. If you're looking to criticize people for living off of tax dollars, there's a lot less honorable ways of doing that than working a 9-5 in an underpaid public service job.

I think if you asked DC whether they'd rather continue to be funded by federal income and burdened by the national politics that constantly dictate what they can and can't do - or whether they'd prefer to enjoy the same level of freedom that other US cities enjoy they'd choose the former. In fact I don't think - I know - DC statehood has been a hugely locally popular movement for quite some time. Just because you bought someone a coffee after punching them in the gut doesn't mean they appreciate your patronage.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
andlarry 4y ago
> DC statehood has been a hugely locally popular movement for quite some time. I'm sure many locales with 670k residents would love to become states, that'd be a pretty sweet deal.
- kube-system 4y ago
  Vermont and Wyoming have fewer residents.
  - munk-a 4y ago
    Hey, as a former Vermonter I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell everyone that. Do you want us to take away Bernie? /s
  - andlarry 4y ago
    Indeed. 436 states, here we come!
    - kube-system 4y ago
      If we granted statehood to every federal territory that has more residents than Wyoming, we'd have 52.
      - deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]
      - andlarry 4y ago
        Why choose the least populous state as the standard for admission instead of, say, the median?
        munk-a 4y ago
        Probably to give your argument as many points in its favor as possible - which is quite difficult considering how absurd your comment was. You originally said "436 states here we come" - even going by the lowest bar we currently have we'd only have two additional states.
        kube-system 4y ago
        Only 28 of our current states have a population above the median population of all US states and territories. I don't think the other 22 states would be wild about that admission standard.
        andlarry 4y ago
        > I don't think the other 22 states would be wild about that admission standard. We have a well established process for asking states about this sort of thing, the US Congress. They don't seem to be wild about the minimum populous state standard, we should ask about the median populous state standard.
nradov 4y ago
A better option would be to transfer the residential neighborhoods of DC to existing states, and keep only the area around the Capitol and White House under federal control.
- munk-a 4y ago
  I actually completely agree - I think that it'd be far more fair to residents of the DC metro area if the whole city was just merged into either VA or MD (ideally the entire metro area would end up being moved into one of the states entirely - so maybe MD would be granted Arlington and Alexandria - or VA would get a chunk of MD... but either way I think it'd be far better for DC if it weren't this weird quasi-federal zone. I also don't think that proximity really confers any undo influence at this point - so if the federal buildings just became federal property within the state of VA/MD similar to thousands of other federal properties that'd probably be fine.
- dragonwriter 4y ago
  > A better option would be to transfer the residential neighborhoods of DC to existing states The Virginia part was already retroceded in 1847, less than 60 years after the creation of the district; retroceding the Maryland part is a pretty common Republican alternative to D.C. statehood since pressure began for it (though it is opposed by both Maryland and D.C. residents who have 232 years of separate history.)

r00fus 4y ago

DC is a blue "state" they fund other states via taxes more than the inverse.

pseudo0 4y ago
The main employer in DC is the federal government, and those jobs are paid for by the rest of the country's taxes...
- kube-system 4y ago
  27% of the people in DC work for the federal government. If you're looking to criticize people for living off of tax dollars, there's a lot less honorable ways of doing that than working a 9-5 in an underpaid public service job.