What If Every U.S. State Became Independent?

sometimes we forget how big the us actually are at least I do and how large and powerful some of its states can be many of the states are economically powerful enough to surpass certain countries in the world or they would be so let's take a look at what would be the reality if each u.s. state became independent and its own country now we're going to assume that this would be viable forget the issues of military amongst other obstacles that would effectively make this impossible to ever happen we're also not going to take into account the fact that the u.s. dissolving itself would not necessarily mean 50 new countries some others might unite into smaller unions some could join neighboring countries like Canada or Mexico but not for the sake of this video what I'm going to be doing is just looking at the data of States and project how they would do as a country when compared to each other and the rest of the world first population California comes at the top with 39 million surpassing current countries like Poland or Canada around a thirty third most populous country in the world Texas is second with 28 million Florida with 20 New York with 19 and Pennsylvania with 12 at the bottom of the population chart we would have Alaska with 740,000 Vermont with 620 and Wyoming with 580,000 with less population than countries like Cyprus Comoros or Bhutan next size Alaska would be the biggest country out of the Union becoming the 18th largest country in the world smaller than Libya but larger than Iran Texas and California would follow as the second and third largest countries out of the US at the bottom of this list would be Rhode Island Delaware and Connecticut Delaware is so small that it's about the size of less than one-fifth of Estonia and Rhode Island is smaller than the French island of Corsica also noteworthy that states like New York or Florida who are prominent in the other rankings will see next aren't that big occupying the 27th and 22nd places respectively Florida for instance is only a little larger than Portugal and New York is close to the size of Belarus showing us that size doesn't necessarily mean more economic power in economic terms California would be ranking number one it's by far the most productive state and even self-sufficient in some aspects and it would become the world's fifth largest economy only behind China Japan Germany and the UK Texas wouldn't be there far behind though also in second place as the world's tenth largest economy between Brazil and Canada the current economic might of the US is demonstrated by the fact that in an event like this four states would be in the g20 California Texas New York and Florida kicking out Saudi Arabia Turkey and South Africa as well as the US this economic reality is demonstrated by the GDP of each state or each new country in this case California would be at the top again with a GDP of 2.7 billion dollars Texas with 1.7 billion new york with 1.5 and florida when nine hundred and seventy million it seems as if in the case of independence these four would be at the top of almost all rankings amongst the old states however if we look at the gdp in another perspective the GDP per capita massachusetts would have the highest one ranking number nine in the world just behind the united arab emirates the District of Columbia would technically be higher but since it isn't an official state I guess it would just be absorbed into Virginia in this scenario this map is really interesting it's a bit outdated from 2013 but it shows the equivalent GDP of each state to a current existing country matching North Dakota with becca stan new mexico with Ecuador kinnetik to Greece or Alaska to Luxembourg but values have changed since then and even these ones are a rough approximation the end of the US would also mean that a lot of the states would have to change their state flags most of which have something to do with the Union most state flags or just the state seal and usually the seal has a lot of elements of the u.s. like the ego the order of a mission into the Union or sometimes the actual US flag so a change would definitely be in order for those states like Ohio would probably want something that is more about their own identity for instance each state has an official word tree and flowers so this could be put into use on Ohio's case the Buckeye tree or the Cardinal bird could be symbols on a new flag I guess that in this case states like California Arizona Texas New Mexico New Jersey or Maryland would have their problem solved having already original Flags in the case of California or Texas these are even Flags that already represented the territories at a time of Independence so it would make even more sense to maintain them religion would also be an interesting topic 14 of these new countries would be of Catholic majority 33 would be Protestant and three would be Mormon Utah and Idaho creating the only three countries in the world who have a Mormon majority along with Tonga a small Pacific island it's also interesting to see something else given that despite these differences all states maintain a Christian majority what would be the second largest religion in each of these new countries the west coast Alaska Hawaii and some of the Midwest have Buddhism as their second largest religion the Northeast Judaism and a lot of the south and center states have Islam southern states are the most religious at least in terms of attendance so we could assume that religion would play a larger role in these future countries states like Vermont Maine and New Hampshire are on the opposite end with lower church attendance and perhaps less importance of religion for the population assuming that military issues would not be a problem and that the military power of the US would simply be divided among states according to the nature of each soldier Texas will have the largest military with a total of two hundred and ninety two thousand troops California would follow with a total of two hundred and forty-seven thousand and keep in mind that this data isn't really certain and might be outdated with this data Texas would be the 20th strongest military force in the world above Canada and California would follow right behind however this is just about soldiers the question would be put of how to divide other military supplies and vehicles like tanks the US Navy the Air Force in my opinion military unity is what makes a u.s. breakup most unlikely the fact that they would advocate being the world's strongest military force and the mere confusion and mess that it would be dealing with the posts Union military force we can also take a look at some other interesting statistics that show us current differences between states that would transfer into differences between the new countries for instance the legalization of marijuana legal on all of the West Coast for recreational use for medical use and a bunch of other states but illegal in some others and remember that this is before the 2018 midterm election in terms of crime rate should the current stats be maintained Vermont Maine and Minnesota would be the safest of the 50 countries New Mexico Alaska Louisiana and Arkansas would be the top four most dangerous countries the states with the highest percentage of poor people could likely be in the south while the ones with the least percentage of people in poverty would be in the Northeast some countries would have a male population majority like Hawaii North Dakota or Wyoming and others would have a female majority like Delaware Alabama Mississippi or Maryland amongst many other stats the thing is all of these that despite being about specific states are collected in the context of the Union should the u.s. dissolve all of them would probably change because the way the states are is dependent or at least related to their coexistence within the same nation for instance California's economic might may be would be reduced if it instantly saw its neighbors as new countries and not member states of the same Union because new trade agreements would need to be drafted etc and new necessities would emerge for instance the need of each new country to have their own military meaning expenses in their respect among so many other changes that would maybe change the power relation that now exists between states however I think we can draw a few conclusions from all this in the event of every state becoming independence four of them would instantly become powerful countries in the world California Texas New York and Florida they top the most significant criteria population and economic power however others might also be at the top of successful countries which would emerge Massachusetts has a solid public education and good local government using a somewhat European model in taxes so they might be able to make it work other smaller states might have a more difficult time and lose a lot of their wealth as consequence of the central government not being around anymore maybe new unions would emerge and we can only really try and guess what would happen if you enjoy this one remember to subscribe to catch new ones and leave a comment below with your opinion I will see you next time

Channel: General Knowledge

Views: 1,092,320

Rating: 4.6958909 out of 5

Keywords: generalknowledge, funwithflags, countriesthatdon'texist, what if every state was independent, what if every american state became independent, what if every us state became its own country, california, texas, new york, florida, alaska, hawaii, independence movements usa, american secession, independent california, independent texas, vermont canada, maine canada

Id: _NbGCHiFJ0Y

Length: 10min 34sec (634 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 30 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/bearlick]

Putin would cum in his pants.