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California secession... unfair to the conservative minority?
Posted on: September 21, 2017 at 22:29:08 CT
JeffB MU
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If the Majority Votes to Secede — What About the Minority?
https://mises.org/blog/if-majority-votes-secede-%E2%80%94-what-about-minority
...Within the American context, the loudest calls for secession right now are coming from California where leftists are eager to assert their independence from the Trump administration in Washington.
Generally speaking, these California secessionists want single-payer health care, an even larger welfare state, confiscation of private firearms, and an ever larger environmental "protection" bureaucracy. That is, they want a European-style welfare state.
California as Case Study
This case presents Americans — and especially libertarian-minded Americans — with a question that continues to come up in recent years on secession matters: should they support a left-wing secession movement?
Is it right or moral to support a secession movement that, in the short- and medium- terms is almost guaranteed to adopt policies that are counter to the cause of freedom and free markets?
The answer must first and foremost be compared against the reality of forcing political union on a separatist region. That is, the cost of allowing a region to separate must be compared to the cost of keeping it in — i.e., military invasion, occupation, mass arrests, government surveillance, martial law, and worse.
Not surprisingly, we're forced to conclude the answer is the same whether we're talking about secession in Scotland, in California, or in Catalonia: the answer is yes.
What About the Minority Interests?
Often, the immediate retort to this position is to point to those groups in the minority who are left stuck in the seceding territories.
The argument goes something like this: "Now that you've cut California loose, what about those poor conservatives, gun owners, and business owners who will now be negatively impacted by a newly empowered California government? Before, California was at least somewhat restrained by its membership in the United States. Now the California government is even more free to inflict misery on the hapless taxpayers and productive people who are stuck there."
To this criticism, there are at least two responses.
One: California Independence Means More Freedom for the Rest of the Country ...
https://mises.org/blog/if-majority-votes-secede-%E2%80%94-what-about-minority
...Within the American context, the loudest calls for secession right now are coming from California where leftists are eager to assert their independence from the Trump administration in Washington.
Generally speaking, these California secessionists want single-payer health care, an even larger welfare state, confiscation of private firearms, and an ever larger environmental "protection" bureaucracy. That is, they want a European-style welfare state.
California as Case Study
This case presents Americans — and especially libertarian-minded Americans — with a question that continues to come up in recent years on secession matters: should they support a left-wing secession movement?
Is it right or moral to support a secession movement that, in the short- and medium- terms is almost guaranteed to adopt policies that are counter to the cause of freedom and free markets?
The answer must first and foremost be compared against the reality of forcing political union on a separatist region. That is, the cost of allowing a region to separate must be compared to the cost of keeping it in — i.e., military invasion, occupation, mass arrests, government surveillance, martial law, and worse.
Not surprisingly, we're forced to conclude the answer is the same whether we're talking about secession in Scotland, in California, or in Catalonia: the answer is yes.
What About the Minority Interests?
Often, the immediate retort to this position is to point to those groups in the minority who are left stuck in the seceding territories.
The argument goes something like this: "Now that you've cut California loose, what about those poor conservatives, gun owners, and business owners who will now be negatively impacted by a newly empowered California government? Before, California was at least somewhat restrained by its membership in the United States. Now the California government is even more free to inflict misery on the hapless taxpayers and productive people who are stuck there."
To this criticism, there are at least two responses.
One: California Independence Means More Freedom for the Rest of the Country ...
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California secession... unfair to the conservative minority? - JeffB MU - 9/21 22:29:08cali-exit.....the true russia collusion no one talks about - Leader_of_the_bandwagon MU - 9/22 08:03:30