Nation Divided

I thought that pain and hope were things that really mattered
But you can't stay here with every single hope you had shattered
--Big Country

Should the social divide continue to widen between those who believe in freedom and those who believe in state-sponsored 'equality,' it is hard not to entertain the plausibilitiy of a secession scenario where America is divided up geographically according to belief.

Suppose for example, that we split the US into two countries using the Mississippi River as the inter-country border. One new country, Liberty, would belong to those who believe in limited government and free markets. The other new country, Equality, would belong to those who believe in big government and income leveling in the name of social justice.

We can confidently predict the outcomes of such a scenario. Standard of living, in terms of income per capita, would steadily increase in Liberty as people seek out opportunities to satisfy buyer needs. Resources are effectively allocated by private enterprise seeking to satisfy buyer needs. Pricing mechanisms permit economic calculation necessary to allocate those resources. The role of government is limited toward protecting people's property rights, broadly construed to include life, wherewithall to produce, and physical property. Initiative and productivity are rewarded. Portions of income are set aside as savings, and part of those savings are invested in productivity improvement projects. Wealth and prosperity grow.

In Equality, planning bureaus decide what gets made and for whom, dividing up the work so that workloads are 'fair.' Folks bicker over what is fair, and complaints arise about some not pulling their share of the workload. Without pricing mechanisms, resources are allocated toward areas that planners favor; allocation patterns remain rigid in the face of environmental change--which causes large misallocations and low user satisfaction. Paying for state social welfare programs requires increasingly more of Equality's gross domestic product. Living standards in Equality shrink. There is no income available for savings. In fact, Equality must borrow increasingly higher amounts from outside creditors, perhaps including Liberty, in order to fund its social programs. Widespread squalor ensues.

People in Equality will envy Liberty's progress, and seek to appropriate Liberty's wealth in various ways. For example, Equality might coax Liberty onto a panel of united nations where Liberty will be asked to contribute its fair share to 'world progress.' Residents of Equality will want to immigrate to Liberty in search of greater opportunity. At some point, Equality will raise forcefull exit barriers to keep its people from fleeing the country.

Liberty's destiny will depend on how successfully its citizens can limit scope of government. Equality's destiny will depend on how succesfully its citizens can throw off the authoritarian state.