A 2025 Retrospective.

[Doctor Phibes]

@Larry said in A 2025 Retrospective.:

I wouldn't mind it if California and the New England area got kicked out.

You'd probably want to lose New York too, if it wasn't the birthplace of the Great Man.

[Jolly]

@taiwan_girl said in A 2025 Retrospective.:

Kind of fun "what if " article, but that is all it is.

Each part of the US contributes to the success of the US, and without each other, the rurals and the cities would not be able to survive.

Not really.

There's more industrial capacity than you might think in smaller cities and towns, far away from the coasts. And a lot depends on how the more rural areas of California .

[Jolly]

@Doctor-Phibes said in A 2025 Retrospective.:

@Larry said in A 2025 Retrospective.:

I wouldn't mind it if California and the New England area got kicked out.

You'd probably want to lose New York too, if it wasn't the birthplace of the Great Man.

Sacrifices must be made.

[Doctor Phibes]

The idea that New England doesn't contribute significantly to the success of the US as a whole is a pretty foolish one.

[Jolly]

@Doctor-Phibes said in A 2025 Retrospective.:

The idea that New England doesn't contribute significantly to the success of the US as a whole is a pretty foolish one.

Didn't say that.

Read the scenario again.

[Doctor Phibes]

I realise that's not what the scenario says.

"Tom Trenchard is an American professor"

I wonder what he's a professor of. I'm guessing it's not history.

[taiwan_girl]

@Jolly said in A 2025 Retrospective.:

@taiwan_girl said in A 2025 Retrospective.:

Kind of fun "what if " article, but that is all it is.

Each part of the US contributes to the success of the US, and without each other, the rurals and the cities would not be able to survive.

Not really.

There's more industrial capacity than you might think in smaller cities and towns, far away from the coasts. And a lot depends on how the more rural areas of California .

I am sure they is true, but I think it is also true that independent rural US + independent city US is much less than the two combined as one actual country.

[Jolly]

@taiwan_girl said in A 2025 Retrospective.:

@Jolly said in A 2025 Retrospective.:

@taiwan_girl said in A 2025 Retrospective.:

Kind of fun "what if " article, but that is all it is.

Each part of the US contributes to the success of the US, and without each other, the rurals and the cities would not be able to survive.

Not really.

There's more industrial capacity than you might think in smaller cities and towns, far away from the coasts. And a lot depends on how the more rural areas of California .

I am sure they is true, but I think it is also true that independent rural US + independent city US is much less than the two combined as one actual country.

But the question is which one can do without the other?

[taiwan_girl]

@Jolly Neither.

[jon-nyc]

Most of the wealth and substantially all of the creativity is in the blue areas.

The red have farms and natural resources.

We become Singapore on steroids. United counties becomes..... Kazakhstan?

[Jolly]

@taiwan_girl said in A 2025 Retrospective.:

@Jolly Neither.

You couldn't be more wrong.

[Doctor Phibes]

Without people to pay for and eat their food, farmers aren't actually going to survive for very long.

So, you can split the country in two, but they're still going to be totally reliant on one another.

[Jolly]

@Doctor-Phibes said in A 2025 Retrospective.:

Without people to pay for and eat their food, farmers aren't actually going to survive for very long.

So, you can split the country in two, but they're still going to be totally reliant on one another.

What do the cities have that the rural counties do not have?

The natural resources are in the more rural parts of the country. So are the refineries. And the small towns and cities are not bereft of manufacturing.

And, if COVID gas shown us anything, a city is not needed an intellectual nexus or even a financial hub.

[jon-nyc]

Jolly’s a prepper at heart. When he asks ‘which would do better’ I think he has survival scenarios in his mind that assume no trade with the outside world. Then sure, farms win.

[Doctor Phibes]

@Jolly said in A 2025 Retrospective.:

@Doctor-Phibes said in A 2025 Retrospective.:

Without people to pay for and eat their food, farmers aren't actually going to survive for very long.

So, you can split the country in two, but they're still going to be totally reliant on one another.

What do the cities have that the rural counties do not have?

Large numbers of people.

You can't run a large farm without selling the stuff to somebody. You can't have a modern industrialized nation based on farming.

I suspect you'd have been happier living in 1860, but it's nearly 2021.

[taiwan_girl]

@Doctor-Phibes by any current measuring, the more agricultural a country is, the poorer it is.

Obviously, you need a balance but cities need rural areas and rural areas need cities.

As @jon-nyc mentioned, some smaller places can succeed by being cities only (like Singapore or maybe Hong Kong) but I am not sure how that would scale up for somewhere like the US.

[Larry]

@taiwan_girl said in A 2025 Retrospective.:

Kind of fun "what if " article, but that is all it is.

Each part of the US contributes to the success of the US, and without each other, the rurals and the cities would not be able to survive.

You swallow the leftwing line like a starving person being handed cheese. Your statement is almost word for word straight out of the Left's talking points. It's also incorrect. There is absolutely nothing - N. O. T. H. I. N. G. cities offer that the rest of the country can't provide themselves. The "rural" America isn't like rural Taiwan.

[Larry]

@taiwan_girl said in A 2025 Retrospective.:

@Doctor-Phibes by any current measuring, the more agricultural a country is, the poorer it is.

Nope. Not true at all. lol

[Aqua Letifer]

@Jolly said in A 2025 Retrospective.:

What do the cities have that the rural counties do not have?

Money. Oh, and the industries that drive the vast, vast majority of our exports.

In 2019, the United States agriculture exports accounted for $135.54 billion. Media and entertainment accounted for $771 billion.

You're going to find a way to twist or nullify this because you value famers more than you do city-slickers making movies and video games, but the numbers aren't going to change.

EDIT
I'm not saying I like or dislike the breakdown either. Just that the numbers are what they are.

[Doctor Phibes]

Guess what this is a map of...