6 states siding against a supreme court decision to deny access to federal authorities seems big, if thats happened in my lifetime I've not heard of it before

  • Kaplya
    ·
    5 months ago

    I can guarantee you that no balkanization is going to happen in the US.

    Why? Because this is no longer the time period where individual states can build up their gold reserves as a store of their wealth. No, the US dollar is unparalleled in history in the sense that it allows the US to get “free lunches” from all over the world with junk papers.

    I love quoting from this article from 2022 because the Californian finance department accidentally revealed a very crucial fact:

    If you look at all of the personal income tax returns that were filed in California in the year 2020, just 1% of the total number of income tax returns that were filed were responsible for more than 49% of all of the personal income tax that was paid in that year. And unlike most of us who get our income from wages and salaries, that very narrow band of taxpayers derives a lot of their income from things like capital gains, stock markets [and] bonuses that are tied to corporate or stock performance. So when the markets are doing very well, those individuals are doing very well and state revenues are doing very well. Conversely, when the markets go south, their fortunes don't do very well and the state's revenues decline as a result.

    Let’s parse this paragraph: California, the richest state in the US, derives much of its tax revenues from capital gains such as stocks and bonds. Yeah, good luck losing access to the dollar, if any US state even dares to contemplate about seceding for real. Their wealth and living standards are going to plunge overnight. Good luck with that.

    • italktothewind
      ·
      5 months ago

      Just because it'd be irrational for it to happen, doesn't mean it won't happen

      • Kaplya
        ·
        5 months ago

        This is just the equivalent of rich kids who live off their parents’ wealth throwing tantrum. At the end of the day, nobody dares to cut ties from the family wealth. Sure, some might be crazy enough to do it, but most of the time it doesn’t end well for them.

        No country is ever going to give up the dollar just to trade with Texas. Literally nobody. This is how the US impose its sanctions and embargo against Cuba and all the Bad Countries.

          • Kaplya
            ·
            5 months ago

            BRICS Bank Aims to Increase Local-Currency Borrowing to 30%

            • Dollar funding will continue to dominate, CFO Maasdorp says

            But the majority of the bank’s funding — about 70% — will continue to be denominated in dollars, he said.

            “The bank’s capital is in US dollars. Our reporting currency is US dollars. So the dollar is hot-coded in the DNA of the bank,” he said.

            No shot. Everyone’s dragging their feet about de-dollarization at BRICS. My biggest disappointment of 2023, after all the encouraging talks about doing it during the 2022 summit.

            • bbnh69420 [she/her, they/them]
              ·
              5 months ago

              I gotta be honest, nothing has made me despise dollar hegemony like your posting. Truly removed the blinders I had that had me coping re: BRICS

              • Kaplya
                ·
                5 months ago

                As you should. I try to raise awareness about how dangerous the dollar can be because too many people think that the US empire is on the brink of collapse just because it is losing a few wars currently, forgetting that the US has lost near every war since 1945 except maybe for the 1991 Gulf War and still managed to dominate the world like nothing has happened.

                • bbnh69420 [she/her, they/them]
                  ·
                  5 months ago

                  Accurate materialist analysis is anathema and antithetical to Western mindsets, even those with slightly wider lenses

        • italktothewind
          ·
          5 months ago

          I see what you mean

          fwiw I don't think it's happening anytime soon, but crises such as these repeating (growing larger each time) plus the US' power globally declining = after a few decades, probably balkanisation, sure

          • Kaplya
            ·
            5 months ago

            If the dollar loses its hegemony status, then likely. But it’s going to be a while away, probably decades like you said.