Jacksonville Business Daily

How would demographics shift if we divided America?

Forget the typical liberal/conservative division everybody always talks about, suppose we divided America equally into two states, and governed one with a Libertarian philosophy and one with a Socialist philosophy. In the Libertarian state you would have to fend for yourself. There would be no welfare beyond private charity, no bailouts for failing businesses, no social security, and you'd have to pay for your healthcare. You would be allowed to keep almost everything you'd made, with a pittance taken out to establish an army to keep the borders secure and a system of courts for settling contract disputes. On the socialist side health care, housing, food, and every necessity of life would be provided for the citizens, in return for a system of taxation that left the public with a small amount of disposable income. And you were allowed to cross the border only twice in your life, for both sides. How do you think the demographics would shift? Would one side rise comparable to the other in terms of quality of life? Would certain people gravitate to certain sides? What would the two state country look like in one hundred years?

Public Comments

1. Didn't they already do this with Berlin?
2. Being a libertarian myself, I would choose that side with the hopes that it would never convert to socialism. The government was originally formed to protect you from me, me from you and us from the rest of the world and that's as it should be. Socialism suppresses people and eventually they'd gravitate to the 'free' side, but unfortunately since they're used to living under the conditions of a nanny state, they'd soon be making demands. I'd prefer that they get visitation visas only and get shipped back to their side without being allowed to stay and screw things up (which they would).
3. You say the libertarian side would only fund the military and courts. What about roads? What about police? What about fire departments? What about ambulance service? What about schools? What about public health? What about a postal service? What about building permits? What about jails? Seriously - how would these functions be accomplished? In looking at other countries (Germany, Canada, England, Ireland) who are more on the 'socialist' side, I don't see a vast number of people looking to leave these countries for other, less 'regulated' societies.
4. This is easy. Pretend your Libertarian state was the US and your Socialist state was the former U.S.S.R. How many people were dying to get into the old U.S.S.R vs. how many were dying to get out? How many people were dying to get into the US vs. how many were dying to get out?
5. When you talk about libertarians and socialist, you're basically talking about conservatives and liberals. The majority of Americans fall in the middle and they don't like either extreme. What they don't want is fascism run by corporations and the rich, which is what we have now. A democratic republic to me is the best system if kept ethical.
6. i smell a whiff of rascism,
7. I'd move to some other country. These are two extremes and I want no part of either. You'd end up with two 3rd world countries--one fascist and one communist.
8. You'd end up with a bunch of Rich farm Boys who would be paid $$$ for their food and ethenol to pay for food and energy for the Stay at Home Welfare Nanny state....Ha!