The Left Coast—California, Oregon, and Washington—are grossly under-represented in the US federal government. “The coastal counties in the United States are home to almost 40% of the country's population (50M people), even though they make up less than 10% of the land mass.” Those three states make up a huge portion of the US economy: In 2024, "California is once again the sixth-largest economy in the world. If you add the GDP’s of Washington and Oregon, California would surpass the United Kingdom to become the fifth-largest economy in the world." In 2023, California's GDP was nearly $3.9 trillion, making it the fifth largest economy in the world for the seventh year in a row. California's GDP growth rate was 6.1% from the previous year. Oregon's GDP was $318,884B a slight increase from the previous year, when the state's GDP was $254.71B. Washington's GDP was $807,864B.
In 2023, the federal government collected $4.44 trillion in total income taxes. The residents of California paid over $234 billion in federal personal income taxes in 2023. That's about 15% of the national total, and nearly 95 times as much as paid by residents of Vermont, for example. Washington paid $44.2B in personal income taxes and Oregon paid
This is just a partial list of the dependent states (only the top 10), but it’s pretty obvious that the majority of freeloaders are Republican states. Even some of the so-called “Blue States,” like New Mexico, are geographically red states, they are mostly rural and the rural, uneducated, and gullible areas are solidly Fox/NewsMax territory. Sadly, that is also true for the Left Coasts’ rural areas in the eastern portions of the states.
But, imagine if those Left Coast states quit paying those billions of federal taxes and invested that money in their own defense systems, infrastructure, economic development, education systems, and world trade. The rest of the US would suddenly be buried in its national debt (currently at more than $34T) with no functional economy with which to repay any part of that mountain of paper. Skilled immigration to California, especially from Red States, would likely blossom into a massive brain-drain from the remainder of the US.
The rising price of real estate would purge even more of the economic losers from the states to the massively dependent and unproductive Mountain West. About 40% of California’s homeless were born in other states (or countries) and the new Left Coast nation would be under no reasonable obligation to support them. As of February of this year, “of Californians feel they'd be happier if their state was no longer part of the United States.” The threat of suffering another episode of Trump is a driver, too: “"If Donald Trump is elected, the number of people who think California should become its own country will undoubtedly go up in California," Michal Strahilevitz, a California business professor, explained. "If Joe Biden is reelected, or really anyone other than Donald Trump, the number is unlikely to go up and may even go down. As in many blue states, most residents of California are terrified of another four years under Donald Trump." Another overthrow of the popular vote by the Electoral College could be the event that really trips this trigger.
It is not inconceivable or impractical. The flame-throwing MAGAots like to imagine they are brave patriots, but when they are asked to support themselves and be responsible for their actions they will be like their “fearless leader” Donny and bankrupt themselves and their futures. We could be in for an ugly, exciting future.
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