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CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – Some people in California want to break away from the United States and form their own country. There’s a petition drive underway now. If the question makes it to the ballot, 55-percent of Californians would have to approve. If they vote “yes,” they’re voting to set up a committee to study the issue. As there is no formal process to leave the Union, the U.S. Supreme Court could rule all of this unconstitutional and shut down the movement.
Let’s suppose for a moment that California goes its own way. It’s such an impractical idea, that even the weed-smokers of San Francisco are unlikely to go along.
California is the world’s 7th largest economy right now. It wouldn’t be as an independent country.
For starters, Californians would need a passport to enter the United States, no different than people crossing from Mexico or Canada. California would have its own currency. Since the U.S. Dollar is the world’s reserve currency, the Cal-Dollar would be weaker and subject to all the trading fluctuations of the currency markets. Only the United States of America is allowed to run long-term deficits. The Nation of Cali would have to balance its budget each year, without the federal aid it currently receives from Washington.
All the businesses in California, from farms to technology to entertainment would suddenly become foreign companies. Their products would be subject to tariffs and other import rules. We get a lot of tomatoes from California, but they could be competing with other imports from Guatemala where farm workers get pennies a day. How many other California companies would move out because the advantages to being an American company are overwhelming.
I wonder what will happen to the real estate market. Surely there will be a large percentage of Californians who are proud to be Americans. What if, hypothetically, one-third or one-quarter of California residents pack up and move, preferring to retain American citizenship. There’s no real estate market that can withstand that amount of property coming onto the market at the same time… prices would tumble. Americans who continue to work in California would be taxed as expatriates at 40-percent.
California would bear the full costs of setting up a military. Power and water it imports from the Colorado River, which is entirely within the United States would no longer be a given.
As for the rest of the United States, California’s 54 electoral college votes would no longer automatically go to Democrats each election day. The remainder of the U.S. would immediately become more conservative.
I think when cooler heads prevail, Californians will discover that independence makes them much worse-off financially. In other words, they don’t hate Donald Trump as much as they think they do.
Chris Conley
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