Quote:
I think the only workable solution to the situation would be for the Federal Government to volunteer to hand back almost all of its powers to groups of states, newly created, about the size of provinces in Canada.

For example, there is absolutely no good reason that I can think of to have 6 states in New England. These states could unite with the state of New York to become a new "province".

Similarly, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Deleware, Virginia and W. Virginia would unite and become a single province, as would Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and Kentucky. The Carolinas, Georgia and Florida another--Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas, another, etc.

These new provinces would act "almost" like independent countries, and be allowed to create their own currencies. In this way, "free market" competition, scientific analysis and fiscal sobriety will determine which currencies survive and which fail, so everyone will have to pay attention to what's going on.




HOG, what you are describing is a close varient of the 'Nine Nations of North America', a concept that has been around since the late 1970's. This situation, in a sense, exists *now*. It also cuts across national boundaries.

You gave some east coast splits; here is some for the west:

(coastal) washington, oregon, british columbia, northern california, and SE Alaska form `Ecotopia' or 'Cascadia', a wet, forested region with abundant water, a extremely 'green' outlook, and politics tending towards socialism.

Southern California, along with Arizona, Texas, OK, all of Mexico within a 100 - 200 miles of the US border, and a few fringe areas are part of 'Mexamerica' - a 'nation' at once united and divided by an entirely artificial border splitting the region in two. Water is in critically short supply throughout this region; the source of no little agrivation. Imigration and its effects dominate the political scene. This region is actively expanding north into Cascadia and the `Empty Quarter' (a parched expanse in the continental center extending more or less from Utah to Alaska, and including interior British Columbia, Alberta, and the Yukon).

The Midwest is the 'breadbasket' a region that has...not been doing too well for a long while now.