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>Perhaps this is a glimpse into the long-term solution to the problem of the federal legislature being intractable deadlocked: states will simply start ignoring

>Perhaps this is a glimpse into the long-term solution to the problem of the federal legislature being intractable deadlocked: states will simply start ignoring federal law more and more, and its relevance will fade over time. I feel that this may be the best way to do things, since each state is unique in it people and geography. I also feel like universal healthcare on a state level would be the only thing to work at this point, it seems like the federal government is unable to budge at all when it comes to fixing it.

ceejayoz 4y ago
I think there are a lot more people who'd move for universal healthcare than there are who'd move for pot, and those people are likely to be folks who impose a significant burden on the new system. (For example, I paid $48k out of pocket last year. I'd move in a heartbeat.)
pySSK 4y ago
> I also feel like universal healthcare on a state lev would be the only thing to work at this point Even Canada does it per province, and even there, doing it at a federal level would be too intractable.
- ceejayoz 4y ago
  Canada has a federal law requiring (functionally; if you don't, you also opt-out of federal funding for your system) every province to offer it, though, with a minimum standard, right? That's very different than California offering it on their own volition, and the other 49 states not.
johnea 4y ago
> ...since each state is unique in it people and geography. This is just so wrong on so many levels it's hard to know what to respond to. Maybe try going outside, you'll find it's actually completly continuous, there is no species change when crossing state lines 8-) Even more to the point, typical (media prtrayed) state based differences all have gapping inaccuracies: - california has more republicans than texas - texas has more democrats than new york The division into states is one of the biggest problems facing actual democracy in the us. Coupled with first-past-the-post, and the electoral college, the us is far far from a government that enforces the public will. And as far as the specific issue of marijuana is concerned, this is such a poster child for how locked into the "leave it to beaver" american dream state of the 1950s the eastern us still is. The whole: "Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, like the little baby jesus intended" mindset. Having said that, I actually do agree that the state level is about the only place anything at all can be acomplished. Because the DNC and RNC have both blocked public health care repeatedly, and you're NEVER going to see either of those parties back any policy that disenfranchises their donor class.
- rayiner 4y ago
  > Maybe try going outside, you'll find it's actually completly continuous, there is no species change when crossing state lines Culture is different even in nearby states. I grew up in Virginia, went to college in Georgia, and live in Maryland now. Right before the pandemic my parents moved nearby, after living in Virginia for 30 years. My dad pointed out the other day that Marylanders aren’t like Virginians, something he has realized immediately. Then it clicked for me: Maryland is part of the mid Atlantic (PA, NJ, DE) while Virginia is part of the south. Now I can’t unsee it: the accents, the odd mannerisms, etc. I married an Oregonian. Oregon might as well be Canada. Weird libertarian Canada. My family is originally from Bangladesh, but at least half of the cultural friction between our families comes from Oregon versus Virginia.
  - skissane 4y ago
    > Culture is different even in nearby states. Yes, but the US is arguably much more culturally homogenous than many other countries. Whatever differences you see between Virginia and Maryland, I think they are significantly smaller than the differences between Ontario and Quebec. New York and Alabama may seem far apart culturally, but how does that compare to the cultural differences between Uttar Pradesh and Kerala, or between Sokoto and Akwa Ibom?
    - rayiner 4y ago
      US cultural homogeneity is overstated by comparison to countries or regions with different languages. But Australia and Canada and the US are all English speaking—do they not warrant being separate countries? What about Australia and New Zealand? Ireland and Britain and Scotland? And language aside—are Denmark and Sweden more different from each other than New York versus Alabama?
      - skissane 4y ago
        > But Australia and Canada and the US are all English speaking—do they not warrant being separate countries? Canada is also French-speaking. There are some big differences in attitudes between the US and Australia on various topics - for example, Australians have a mostly settled cultural consensus in favour of gun control and liberal abortion laws, to give two examples, unlike the US where both are very heated political conflicts > What about Australia and New Zealand? New Zealand actually participated in the negotiations for forming Australia (as a federation of British colonies), but at the end decided to stay out-if history had turned out a bit differently, it might have been an Australian state not a separate country. In a lot of ways the differences between Australian and New Zealand culture are relatively trivial - different accents, different words for certain things. You get the same differences between Australian states, albeit to a more limited degree. However, there is one big difference: over 17% of New Zealand’s population have Indigenous (Māori) ancestry, and Māori have a common language and a great deal of common culture-leading to a significant Māori influence on mainstream NZ culture. Australia’s Indigenous peoples are less than 4% of the population, and divided among numerous languages and nations, which means their impact on mainstream Australian culture has been significantly smaller. > Britain and Scotland? One way in which the US is very homogeneous is that state politics aren’t particularly distinctive from national politics. Every state is the same two parties facing off against each other, the main political difference between states is the relative power of the two. Whereas, each of the UK’s four constituent countries have different party systems - the SNP only exists in Scotland, Plaid Cymru only exists in Wales, the major parties in Northern Ireland are different from those in the rest of the UK. Spain, Canada, India and Italy are other examples of countries in which region-specific parties are big players in politics. The only real example in the US are territories such as Puerto Rico, and if Puerto Rico ever became a state, it would likely start converging with the American political monoculture. Politics isn’t the same thing as culture, but political culture is part of culture, and greater political diversity is generally both a symptom of and simultaneously a promoter of greater cultural diversity.
htag 4y ago
It's still super illegal to transport cannabis across state borders. This is true even when transporting between legal states that share borders. It's mostly unenforced on the individual basis, but it is a huge aspect of the legal markets. Being able to do business across the entire country is a very large factor in USA's economic success. Removing the federal criminal laws on cannabis will remove this and many other inefficiencies of the cannabis industry.

ceejayoz 4y ago

I think there are a lot more people who'd move for universal healthcare than there are who'd move for pot, and those people are likely to be folks who impose a significant burden on the new system. (For example, I paid $48k out of pocket last year. I'd move in a heartbeat.)

pySSK 4y ago

> I also feel like universal healthcare on a state lev would be the only thing to work at this point Even Canada does it per province, and even there, doing it at a federal level would be too intractable.

ceejayoz 4y ago
Canada has a federal law requiring (functionally; if you don't, you also opt-out of federal funding for your system) every province to offer it, though, with a minimum standard, right? That's very different than California offering it on their own volition, and the other 49 states not.

johnea 4y ago

> ...since each state is unique in it people and geography. This is just so wrong on so many levels it's hard to know what to respond to. Maybe try going outside, you'll find it's actually completly continuous, there is no species change when crossing state lines 8-) Even more to the point, typical (media prtrayed) state based differences all have gapping inaccuracies: - california has more republicans than texas - texas has more democrats than new york The division into states is one of the biggest problems facing actual democracy in the us. Coupled with first-past-the-post, and the electoral college, the us is far far from a government that enforces the public will. And as far as the specific issue of marijuana is concerned, this is such a poster child for how locked into the "leave it to beaver" american dream state of the 1950s the eastern us still is. The whole: "Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, like the little baby jesus intended" mindset. Having said that, I actually do agree that the state level is about the only place anything at all can be acomplished. Because the DNC and RNC have both blocked public health care repeatedly, and you're NEVER going to see either of those parties back any policy that disenfranchises their donor class.

rayiner 4y ago
> Maybe try going outside, you'll find it's actually completly continuous, there is no species change when crossing state lines Culture is different even in nearby states. I grew up in Virginia, went to college in Georgia, and live in Maryland now. Right before the pandemic my parents moved nearby, after living in Virginia for 30 years. My dad pointed out the other day that Marylanders aren’t like Virginians, something he has realized immediately. Then it clicked for me: Maryland is part of the mid Atlantic (PA, NJ, DE) while Virginia is part of the south. Now I can’t unsee it: the accents, the odd mannerisms, etc. I married an Oregonian. Oregon might as well be Canada. Weird libertarian Canada. My family is originally from Bangladesh, but at least half of the cultural friction between our families comes from Oregon versus Virginia.
- skissane 4y ago
  > Culture is different even in nearby states. Yes, but the US is arguably much more culturally homogenous than many other countries. Whatever differences you see between Virginia and Maryland, I think they are significantly smaller than the differences between Ontario and Quebec. New York and Alabama may seem far apart culturally, but how does that compare to the cultural differences between Uttar Pradesh and Kerala, or between Sokoto and Akwa Ibom?
  - rayiner 4y ago
    US cultural homogeneity is overstated by comparison to countries or regions with different languages. But Australia and Canada and the US are all English speaking—do they not warrant being separate countries? What about Australia and New Zealand? Ireland and Britain and Scotland? And language aside—are Denmark and Sweden more different from each other than New York versus Alabama?
    - skissane 4y ago
      > But Australia and Canada and the US are all English speaking—do they not warrant being separate countries? Canada is also French-speaking. There are some big differences in attitudes between the US and Australia on various topics - for example, Australians have a mostly settled cultural consensus in favour of gun control and liberal abortion laws, to give two examples, unlike the US where both are very heated political conflicts > What about Australia and New Zealand? New Zealand actually participated in the negotiations for forming Australia (as a federation of British colonies), but at the end decided to stay out-if history had turned out a bit differently, it might have been an Australian state not a separate country. In a lot of ways the differences between Australian and New Zealand culture are relatively trivial - different accents, different words for certain things. You get the same differences between Australian states, albeit to a more limited degree. However, there is one big difference: over 17% of New Zealand’s population have Indigenous (Māori) ancestry, and Māori have a common language and a great deal of common culture-leading to a significant Māori influence on mainstream NZ culture. Australia’s Indigenous peoples are less than 4% of the population, and divided among numerous languages and nations, which means their impact on mainstream Australian culture has been significantly smaller. > Britain and Scotland? One way in which the US is very homogeneous is that state politics aren’t particularly distinctive from national politics. Every state is the same two parties facing off against each other, the main political difference between states is the relative power of the two. Whereas, each of the UK’s four constituent countries have different party systems - the SNP only exists in Scotland, Plaid Cymru only exists in Wales, the major parties in Northern Ireland are different from those in the rest of the UK. Spain, Canada, India and Italy are other examples of countries in which region-specific parties are big players in politics. The only real example in the US are territories such as Puerto Rico, and if Puerto Rico ever became a state, it would likely start converging with the American political monoculture. Politics isn’t the same thing as culture, but political culture is part of culture, and greater political diversity is generally both a symptom of and simultaneously a promoter of greater cultural diversity.

htag 4y ago

It's still super illegal to transport cannabis across state borders. This is true even when transporting between legal states that share borders. It's mostly unenforced on the individual basis, but it is a huge aspect of the legal markets. Being able to do business across the entire country is a very large factor in USA's economic success. Removing the federal criminal laws on cannabis will remove this and many other inefficiencies of the cannabis industry.