[Âåðåùàãèí]

It would be a shock, certainly. But I really think we'd do rather well in this scenario.

Opportunistic types would definitely try to go and claim areas with key resources. Whether the US government would allow that is an interesting question.

Do you allow anyone to go off, stick a flag in and claim the area formerly known as Iraq to be "Bobistan" and demand royalties on the oil?

Do you allow a major corporation to do the same? Hmm, that seems more likely to happen. The corp. is at least somewhat regulated by the government, and probably has political connections it can call upon. The money made by the corp is at least somewhat distributed to its employees and shareholders, not just straight into Bob's pocket. Still, there are reasons to disallow that.

If neither of the above is acceptable, then it's government-run colony time. Which would probably be roughly equivalent to the corporate option anyway, really.

I'd expect slash & burn environmental policies, at least outside of current US territory. "This is no time for tree hugging, son!"

There would probably be an upswing in religious fervor. Heck, if this happened I'd have to concede that there is a supernatural power at work. Those who are zealots already... yikes, who the hell knows what they would do.

At about 12:01 am on the first day, plans will being for the re-establishment of Israel. At 12:02, Palestinian-American groups will object and counter with their own plans.

Hmm, there's a thought. Would various hyphenated American groups start claiming the "right" to re-establish their mother countries? If so, would those claims go anywhere? Do I get to claim a piece of Devonshire?

-Arrian