7 ms·

But I don't like being a federation. Having 50 states each infighting, competing to race to the bottom and attract business from each other, like 50 tiny nation

But I don't like being a federation. Having 50 states each infighting, competing to race to the bottom and attract business from each other, like 50 tiny nations, it's not what I want.

cloutchaser 4y ago
Well, that’s the direction it’s been going for 100 years, so you should be happy
- ABCLAW 4y ago
  Well your government has reached the point that it cannot govern at the federal level or reasonably receive strong mandates to deal with issues. Faith in democratic institutions is tanking. This is what it looks like before the system breaks entirely. The buffers can't buffer anymore.
  - hgsgm 4y ago
inglor_cz 4y ago
"competing to race to the bottom" Looking at the US in the last 200 years, it has grown enormously rich, while many ossified systems in the world around it have collapsed. It seems that the competition you dislike does not turn individual Americans into paupers. An average American's living standard is so high that it is actually ecologically unsustainable.
- pessimizer 4y ago
  The US was excellent at not being in Europe during WWII, and really great at accumulating a massive negative balance of payments for 40 years after the juice from that ran out.
  - sangnoir 4y ago
    "Not having your factories being bombed" has huge economic upsides.
    - inglor_cz 4y ago
      "Having your factories bombed" is, ironically, a huge motivator too. At the end of the war, Germans had better and more modern industrial equipment than the British, mostly hidden in improvised underground factories. What really suffered was the civilian housing stock, but the average German industrial machine was less than 5 years old - to a surprise of the Allied occupation authorities. Both Germany and Japan rebuilt their industrial bases to become export juggernauts. And fairly quickly so. Experience with forced improvisation helped.
      - selimthegrim 4y ago
        I’m assuming the Soviets packed it all up
        inglor_cz 4y ago
        From the former DDR and territories that went to Poland, yes, they took quite a lot, but the German industrial heartland around the rivers Rhein and Ruhr is located in the West and it was divided between American and British sectors. No Soviets there.
- sangnoir 4y ago
  This reeks of recency bias: 100 years ago, a british gentleman likely said the same about the superiority of the British Empire as proved by its lasting power - now it's a pale shadow of itself, with Brexit sealing its fate.
  - inglor_cz 4y ago
    200 years is a fairly long "recency". Also, the UK is still a nice place to live, probably nicer than it used to be at the height of the empire - just witness how many people are trying to move there, even ilegally. Large parts of the empire were money sinks, as was the huge navy needed to protect it.
    - 8note 4y ago
      That of course applies to the US too. Its current system of empire has its own money sinks
    - sangnoir 4y ago
      > 200 years is a fairly long "recency". ..and yet Pax Americana isn't 200 years old; and would be very lucky to get there. Which is exactly my point: just because it happened recently doesn't make it particularly notable/superior/longer-lasting conpared to other empires.
wrycoder 4y ago
Then set up a Constitutional Convention. People in NH view life differently than those in CA, and don’t appreciate the idea of one way for everyone, as determined by the folk in the large blue cities.
- hgsgm 4y ago

But I don't like being a federation. Having 50 states each infighting, competing to race to the bottom and attract business from each other, like 50 tiny nations, it's not what I want.

cloutchaser 4y ago

Well, that’s the direction it’s been going for 100 years, so you should be happy

ABCLAW 4y ago
Well your government has reached the point that it cannot govern at the federal level or reasonably receive strong mandates to deal with issues. Faith in democratic institutions is tanking. This is what it looks like before the system breaks entirely. The buffers can't buffer anymore.
- hgsgm 4y ago

inglor_cz 4y ago

"competing to race to the bottom" Looking at the US in the last 200 years, it has grown enormously rich, while many ossified systems in the world around it have collapsed. It seems that the competition you dislike does not turn individual Americans into paupers. An average American's living standard is so high that it is actually ecologically unsustainable.

pessimizer 4y ago
The US was excellent at not being in Europe during WWII, and really great at accumulating a massive negative balance of payments for 40 years after the juice from that ran out.
- sangnoir 4y ago
  "Not having your factories being bombed" has huge economic upsides.
  - inglor_cz 4y ago
    "Having your factories bombed" is, ironically, a huge motivator too. At the end of the war, Germans had better and more modern industrial equipment than the British, mostly hidden in improvised underground factories. What really suffered was the civilian housing stock, but the average German industrial machine was less than 5 years old - to a surprise of the Allied occupation authorities. Both Germany and Japan rebuilt their industrial bases to become export juggernauts. And fairly quickly so. Experience with forced improvisation helped.
    - selimthegrim 4y ago
      I’m assuming the Soviets packed it all up
      - inglor_cz 4y ago
        From the former DDR and territories that went to Poland, yes, they took quite a lot, but the German industrial heartland around the rivers Rhein and Ruhr is located in the West and it was divided between American and British sectors. No Soviets there.
sangnoir 4y ago
This reeks of recency bias: 100 years ago, a british gentleman likely said the same about the superiority of the British Empire as proved by its lasting power - now it's a pale shadow of itself, with Brexit sealing its fate.
- inglor_cz 4y ago
  200 years is a fairly long "recency". Also, the UK is still a nice place to live, probably nicer than it used to be at the height of the empire - just witness how many people are trying to move there, even ilegally. Large parts of the empire were money sinks, as was the huge navy needed to protect it.
  - 8note 4y ago
    That of course applies to the US too. Its current system of empire has its own money sinks
  - sangnoir 4y ago
    > 200 years is a fairly long "recency". ..and yet Pax Americana isn't 200 years old; and would be very lucky to get there. Which is exactly my point: just because it happened recently doesn't make it particularly notable/superior/longer-lasting conpared to other empires.

wrycoder 4y ago

Then set up a Constitutional Convention. People in NH view life differently than those in CA, and don’t appreciate the idea of one way for everyone, as determined by the folk in the large blue cities.

hgsgm 4y ago