[Yinekol]

Actually the consequences would be fairly boring. The economy would rattle a bit, and the military would suddenly be virtually unnecessary, and I suppose the real estate market would flatten, but otherwise ho hum.

[BundEnhamma]

Originally posted by Heraclitus
So in the blink of an eye the United States of America as it exists right now is placed on a imaginary Earth where humans have been extinct since the late stone age. To the Americans it seems like every country in the world has instantly reverted to a pristine natural state without any infrastructure or population and with undepleted resources. They have no instant explanation, but assume that with a few months of research they could realize they were dropped off on a alternative Earth.


The consequences should be very interesting. The few folks in the US who have backyard solar plants are very happy.

Of course we can go grab oil (do we KNOW that the resources are undepleted?) but exploiting it quickly is gonna be a challenge - its not like we've got a huge steel industry. Although this becomes the priority usage for steel, by far. BTW, have all the worlds merchant fleets (other than those in US ports, or US waters) gone also? We badly need tanker capacity to get that oil back, and we DONT have a huge shipbuilding industry. Though again, this will be the priority for the shipyards we do have. And if we focus on Canada and Mexico first, all we need are pipelines.

Btw, hang on to your electronics, since we've lost not just the assembly plants, but the main memory chip plants as well.

And of course just when we need labor to build all the industry that we dont have, there are gonna be folks heading out into the wild, whether to find gold (in South Africa, Australia, etc) or to create various new and odd communities, or whatever.

Its actually gonna be messier than one might think.

[panholio]

I mean basically youve got 300 million people or so, and a helluva lot of key industries to start. And you have to keep ag, mining, and most of current US industry going. Expect almost everyone doing non-urgent stuff, from hollywood to academia to to the space program to govt, to be shifted into urgent stuff. Labor is VERY tight. Capital is too (though at least we dont have to pay back all those nasty debts), only thing that isnt is food.

Im not sure you have the labor force to maintain 2007 technological levels. OTOH robotics is urgent, as it could help you out of the labor shortage.

Birth control will be discouraged.

Folks will want to head out into the wilderness to live off grid, as individuals or communes, but govt may discourage, both so they dont get in the way, and cause labor is needed.

[ElisasAUG]

from the PLIF:

[Roorseprate]

Btw, hang on to your electronics, since we've lost not just the assembly plants, but the main memory chip plants as well.

I'm pretty sure there are enough fabs in the US that we wouldn't lose the tech.

[ehib8yPc]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
I mean basically youve got 300 million people or so, and a helluva lot of key industries to start. And you have to keep ag, mining, and most of current US industry going. Expect almost everyone doing non-urgent stuff, from hollywood to academia to to the space program to govt, to be shifted into urgent stuff. Labor is VERY tight. Capital is too (though at least we dont have to pay back all those nasty debts), only thing that isnt is food.

Im not sure you have the labor force to maintain 2007 technological levels. OTOH robotics is urgent, as it could help you out of the labor shortage.

Birth control will be discouraged.

Folks will want to head out into the wilderness to live off grid, as individuals or communes, but govt may discourage, both so they dont get in the way, and cause labor is needed. How can government discourage it? Build an enormous wall on the Mexican and Canadian borders? And if they're going out into the wilderness on other continents, or Pacific islands, or whatever, they're going to be simply out of reach, particularly given their off-the-grid-ness.

Anyway, I take back my earlier post - it isn't a boring thread.

[tomspoumn]

Originally posted by Igloodude


How can government discourage it? Build an enormous wall on the Mexican and Canadian borders? And if they're going out into the wilderness on other continents, or Pacific islands, or whatever, they're going to be simply out of reach, particularly given their off-the-grid-ness. Uh, send bounty hunters out, who get to enslave anyone they catch?? Depending on how much you need em, there are lots of options.

[rolex-buy]

Anyway, we have a major economic shock as we rebuild oil wells and mines for a few other key resources while expanding local manufacturing, but it's one we'd survive. We'd be somewhat worse off afterward just because we couldn't outsource all of that human manufacturing anymore, but it would probably spur investment in industrial robotics. And, we would get a real peace dividend.

[fruttomma]

Nope, until a religious civil war breaks out between fundamentalist evangelicals (who see in the transport of another planet a work of god who lead them to the promised land and think that he wants them to form a religious state where the theory of evolution is banned and not alowed to be taught, gay people are seen to be mentaly ill and there is only the King James bible as the only allowed bible) the catholics (which of course disagree with the protestants, but also want a small church state for themselves, where, in the absence of the pope on earth, they can determine a new pope), the muslims (which of course want to establish a fundamentalist islamist state wherre the Sharia is law) and the atheist (who disagree with all other 3 groups and want to keep the new planet secularist)

[G778G9P0]

So they could end up like Utah?

[Peterli]

USA really needs labor ... bring them back by force

[ChuttyAmult]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
USA really needs labor ... bring them back by force

boring thread hell!

So among those who didnt emigrate (the left behind?) theres going to be debate between those for war, and those for peace. We dont want to lose the peace dividend, the war will be costly, if a lot of fundies die we wont even get all the labor back. And the softminded pacifists among us will want to start a world free from war. And some religionists (including fundies sane enough not to have left, but also Catholic, Jews, and moderate Protestants) will be opposed to a war likely to polarize on religion. OTOH alot of Pentagon folks will REALLY want to stay important, and the fundies are likely to say and do obnoxious things.


I think we've got a story here.

[Old-old-Ivy]

Originally posted by Igloodude


Bounty hunters, and now this?

The US civilian population has lots of guns (and hardcore Christians are among the more gun-ish) and while the rest of the world has gone away, modern technology hasn't, and there's enough ammunition to go around anyway. The last thing the USA needs is to try to rebuild the planet on the backs of enslaved former citizens, or start a war thus killing people for the sake of a larger labor force. thats what some folks will say.

OTOH we also have the chance to avoid the wars caused by the multiplicity of nations, and this is our chance to prevent the emergence of a potentially hostile state.

Im not sure you have to enslave them all, after you bring them back you can pardon most. The leaders will be imprisoned and sentenced to hard labor for violating "The Law Concerning Unauthorized Settlement Activities"

[Pelefaifs]

Originally posted by lord of the mark


thats what some folks will say.

OTOH we also have the chance to avoid the wars caused by the multiplicity of nations, and this is our chance to prevent the emergence of a potentially hostile state.

Im not sure you have to enslave them all, after you bring them back you can pardon most. The leaders will be imprisoned and sentenced to hard labor for violating "The Law Concerning Unauthorized Settlement Activities" What are you, some kind of post-apocalyptic neocon?

I see it as the opposite - by hunting them down, and preventing people from leaving, we're creating the seeds of anti-US sentiment that will eventually become United Nations General Assembly 2, The Bad Sequel That's Our Own Damned Fault.

Let them go, encourage them to maintain contact, support them as much as limited resources allow, and the world will (re)develop with an inherent fondness for democracy and the other sorts of ideals the US could represent.

[tattcasetle]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
You think the Christian fundies who emigrate will be particularly interested in "democracy"?
Counselor Shlafly rose to speak in the emergency meeting of the Council of Virtue of the Christian Republic of Pampas.

"How dare President Obama claim we're not a democracy? We have regular elections for the parliament, and theyre certifiably fair. The fact that the Council of Virtue certifies and approves candidates doesnt makes us not a democracy - the US didnt let Communists run in the 1950s. And many of President Obama's supporters considered Iran a democracy, with a system similar to our own. This is all hypocrisy, nothing but a conspiracy to maintain global hegemony and enslave us"

[ENCOSEARRALIA]

Kuci - could you cannibalize all the chips in game consoles, and other low priority consumer applications, for other purposes?

[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

[paralelogram]

Also, think of the diseases that would disappear, which have been mostly eradicated in the US (or never really spread here) but are big problems in the developing world.

[singleGirl]

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

Agreed, especially since we'd suddenly have to worry a lot less about environmental policy. CO2 emissions would be slashed. And, once we had the oil infrastructure back up, it would be a lot cheaper. Would it?

Edit: yeah, probably. Me dumb at first. Me forget about massive drop in demand for global commodity.

-Arrian

[Siffidiolla]

Originally posted by Arrian


Would it?

Edit: yeah, probably. Me dumb at first. Me forget about massive drop in demand for global commodity.

-Arrian And the vast quantities of it "discovered" all over the world.