Michael Everett wrote:Senior Chief wrote:Yeah I meant secede... Not that I would want that to happen... But some of these die hard liberals do talk trash that way; and if California did who do you think will pick up the tab for all those on Social Security and other hand-outs that the Feds give out... just those poor smucks who stay in that new country with higher taxes...
It will never happen but the liberals do talk...
We have a similar issue in the UK with Scotland and the SNP.
The SNP wants Scotland to be an independent nation, but their sums just don't add up, especially with the recent(ish) drop in oil revenue. Should they go independent without seriously cutting back on their Government spending, the resulting economic collapse would make Greece look like it was merely low on spendables.
The problem with Secession is what happens when the flow of money from the rest of the country is cut off? Scotland relies on the rest of the UK via the Barnett Formula which gives it about £1,500 more per head than England. Should that be cut off and Scotland forced to rely on internal taxes... ouch.
Does Caliornia have a similar issue?
https://thecommongreen.wordpress.com/20 ... yond-gers/
The problem with relying upon GERS to come up with a Scottish deficit figure(the widely reported ~£15bn) is that certain UK national projects are included in the figures for the devolved governments(Wales and Northern Ireland's figures are similarly affected). Those include Trident and its successor, HS2, Hinckley Point, about £1.5bn of UK military spending abroad is assigned to Scotland and so on. There is also interest on the UK national debt - one of the perks of seceding is the potential to leave all debt behind(I personally think we should take a population share, but who wouldn't want a blank debt slate?).
And it's an undeniable fact that spending would go up immediately after independence. There are the trappings of state to establish - a national broadcaster, defense ministry and forces, diplomatic staff and so on. Beyond that is impossible to predict with even a semblance of certainty.