The hubris of money fondling Blue bubbles
This article from The Hill says it all about the perspective of the Left.
What if Marjorie Taylor Greene’s secessionist fantasy came true?
After denouncing “Democrats’ traitorous America Last policies” and their “sick and disgusting woke culture,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) declared, “We need a national divorce. We need to separate by red states and blue states and shrink the federal government. Everyone I talk to says this.” Asked if her plan was realistic, Greene replied, “It’s something we should work towards because it’s kind of the vision that our founding fathers had for America, and I think it’s great.”
It seems appropriate, then, to consider some implications of Greene’s secessionist fantasy.
But if, somehow, the red and blue states manage to separate, the new normal, as with virtually all divorces, would have substantial economic ramifications. Domestic and international trade relations would be disrupted, treaties would have to be renegotiated, federal assets (including the gold at Fort Knox and military bases at home and abroad), would have to be parceled out, the national debt would have to be paid off.
Talk is cheap, but secession would be expensive for the large number of red states that are indirectly subsidized by blue states. These days, eight of the ten states most dependent on appropriations from the federal government almost always vote Republican. Ironically, many voters in those states believe their tax dollars are supporting Latinos and Blacks.
West Virginia gets 2.36 times more money from Washington D.C. than its residents pay in federal income taxes. Over 4 percent of the workers in the state are employed by the U.S. government, the seventh highest percentage in the country. They earn, on average, nearly double what employees in the state’s private, for-profit companies are paid. For every dollar Mississippi residents pay in federal income taxes, the state receives $2.53 from the government Marjorie Taylor Greene loves to hate. The state of Wyoming gets 56.4 percent of its revenues from the federal government, the highest percentage in the United States. The annual income of federal workers who reside in Alabama ($67,948) is more than double the average income of private, for-profit workers ($33,242).
By contrast, seven of the ten states least dependent on appropriations from the on the federal government almost always vote Democratic.
First of all, there are no Blue states.
There are Blue urban centers, and sometimes the population of those urban centers is the majority population of the state.
I lived in Illinois. There are 101 counties in Illinois and 97 of them are consistently Red.
The ones that aren’t are Chicago, the wealthier Chicago suburbs, and Springfield. That is 53% of the population of the state.
Upstate New York and the Central Valley of California are other examples of blood Red areas dwarfed in population by deep Blue coastal megaopolises they share a state with.
Any divorce will happen at the county level, not the state level.
The Central Valley won’t side with LA and San Francisco if shit goes south.
But what do these urban areas have that the Left thinks gives them power?
Money.
They are centers of finance.
The banking sector, Wall Street, Silicon Vallet, Hollywood, etc.
The thing is, they produced nothing but money.
Silicon Valley may produce software and websites, but they long ago gave up manufacturing hardware.
These Blue areas lack any and all agricultural, manufacturing, mining, refining, or other capabilities.
“Alabama will become destitute without government funding from DC paid for by Blue states.”
That shows that all they have is the power of the purse.
They have the monet but they are dependent on Red areas for everything else.
If the Left wants to know why the Right wants a national divorce so badly, this is why.
Watching 100 million concrete jungle residents run out of food and oil in a matter of days after they get embargoed by Red states is a lesson in hubris they desperately need.
