After Donald trump wont he US election, The Yes California independence campaign wanted
to begin an initiative to make it so that California became separate from the rest of
the united states.
The hashtag caliexit began trending worldwide.
Its extremely unlikely that California would separate from the united states, but lets
imagine, at least for the next few minutes, what would happen if it did?
Today, Life’s biggest questions asks, what if California left the united states?
Hello and welcome back to lifes biggest questions, the channel that imagines the impossible.
I’m your host, charlotte dobre, make sure you leave a like, subscribe and ask us a question
in the comments below.
California would not be the first state to leave the united states.
Back in the 1860s, 11 southern states seceded from the union, but then they re-joined after
the civil war.
For califoria to leave the united states, they would have to vote on a ballot in favour
of leaving the united states.
What the Yes California Independence campaign wanted California to be recognized as a nation
within a nation.
The example they used was Scotland within the united kingdom.
But for the sake of this video, we will examine the possibility of California becoming its
own sovereign nation.
Instead of paying their taxes to the American government, they would keep all the taxes
collected within their own state.
This would result in a substantial budget increase because Californians have paid more
taxes than its received in federal payouts every year since 1995.
That probably has to do with the fact that there are a large number of millionares and
billionares living within California.
Hollywood and silicon valley provide a large fraction of tax dollars to the American government..
The tax dollars that were formerly sent to the us government would be used to build better,
futuristic infrastructure.
Imagine this, High speed hyperloop trains would be built across the country, making
long commutes a thing of the past.
The country would be adorned with skyscrapers that use green energy, with vegetation and
plants growing within them.
Californians would probably develop their own form of currency, perhaps a crypto currency.
But as we saw with brexit, leaving the European union drastically affected the UK economy.
The pound dropped to a 31 year low.
As a result, Britains economy was no longer the 5th biggest in the world, it became the
6th.
That being said, the US dollar as a whole will also go down in value.
One downside to California leaving the rest of the us, is that Californians actually don’t
get their water from their own state.
Most of the water Californians drink comes from Colorado, specifically the Colorado river.
The snow and rain falls in the Colorado mountains, then flows down to California.
Its been that way for 94 years.
But if California left the united states, who knows what would happen, Perhaps Colorado
would divert the water back to its own state, leaving California with the task of finding
a different source.
Perhaps all those billions of tax dollars would have to be spent on importing water
from Colorado, or even Canada.
Perhaps California and Canada will become close trade partners, and import food, water,
gas and other goods within them.
That being said, Californias agriculture industry is huge, the biggest in the united states.
It supplies much of the food the rest of Americans eat.
If America shut off their water, California could respond by shutting off the food supply,
creating a trade war.
This would cause the price of fruits and vegetables for the rest of America would skyrocket.
Furthermore, the taxes the rest of americans pay will also skyrocket to make up for the
fact that they aren’t receiving taxes from the wealthy Californians anymore.
Maybe another economic recession would also take place.
Furthermore, Not everyone would give up their American passports willingly.
Like with other examples where countries have broken apart, there would likely be many Californians
who would flee California to keep being americans.
The thing is, the united states doesn’t even recognize secessionists.
Following the civil war, in1869, the supreme court made it so that any state that rebelled
against the united states would have to win a war against the rest of the country, in
order to be considered its own sovereign nation.
And although California does have a huge military presence, its an American military presence
all the same.
California would have to commandeer US bases like the Vandenberg air force base and threaten
the united states with ballistic missiles.
Yes, California does have its own state military reserve, but it likely couldn’t win in a
war against America as a whole.
In conclusion, A caliexit probably wouldn’t happen in real life, but that’s what people
said about brexit and a donald trump presidency.
Who knows what the future will bring.
For now, I’m charlotte dobre, and you’ve been watching lifes biggest questions.
If you liked this video, you’ll love our playlist, biggest what ifs.