What do you think about the California Secession idea?

[thismeintiel]

mrstickball said:

HappySqurriel said:

Bong Lover said:
I currently live in what would be part of the 'conservative' California. If such a split was to happen I would most likely need to move a few miles to get out.

I find it incredibly ironic that the people suggesting this doesn't realize (or do they realize, they just hate having money?) that their part of California to a large part is feeding off the real money generating areas of the state, which would pretty much all be part of the 'liberal' California.

I haven't closely studied the figures myself so my assumption could be wrong, but I suspect that many people in "conservative California" would argue that the punitive regulatory regime and high taxes imposed on them by "liberal California" were artificially holding them back; and potentially propping up "liberal California".

Hypothetically speaking, if this was the case you would expect to see the "wealthy" half of California struggle post-split with the "poor" part of California thriving.

California's socioeconomic condition is a lot more broad than that.

The conservative area has, bar none, the best agricultural sector in the world. Period. 365 growing days a year. It is America's veggie basket as one county produces 75% of the world's output for artichokes. As stated, I think the conservative side would re-align regulations to get their mining sector back in order which would benefit the new state significantly. Remember, this new proposed state would have a $260 billion economy - larger than Finland.

Likewise, the rest of CA would still have the massive movie and tech sectors which are big in their economy. Sillicon valley is still a major force, albiet waining, and SF is a major hub of internet startups which yields massive amounts of growth and capital. However, one wonders what their taxation and spending model would be like. CA is notorious for welfare, and I question how it would handle being split up - if the liberal part would continue with its bread & circus act, or if it would finally find the cojones to deal with that area of its spending problem. Likewise, taxation would be interesting. At any rate, a split would yield an interesting case study to see what happens. Could be the start of a lot more splits which could be good for America. There are about 3-4 other movements to split states up along cultural divides, which could benefit the nation as we could decentralize government further.

I agree with the bolded.  I think it would interesting to see which sections policies would prove better at improving and sustaining an economy/budget.  I very doubt the liberal section would allow it to happen, though.  That would mean the loss of many taxable dollars and power in the electorate.