A Change.Org petition proposes Sell Montana to Canada for $1 Trillion to Eliminate the National Debt.
It seems the person who wrote the petition is totally clueless about the national debt. It’s about $22 trillion and it will grow about $1 trillion a year because we have $1 trillion deficits as far as the eye can see.
Alternatively, the petition sponsor recognized that and simply wanted to make the idea as absurd as possible.
Either way, the petition is a slap at Canada and Montana because it states “We have too much debt and Montana is useless. Just tell them it has beavers or something.”
Great Falls Tribune Response
The Great Falls Tribune Response is more far amusing than the petition itself.
We in Montana Have Questions
- Does Canada have an extra trillion?
- Would Montana still be named Montana or would we be Southern Alberta? Better Saskatchewan?
- Does the universal healthcare start right away or is there a waiting period?
- Can we take Yellowstone National Park with us?
- Why not Alaska? It’s not even touching the other states!
- Canadian football, really?
- July 1 vs. July 4 for a national holiday, sure whatever. But Thanksgiving in October?!
- Is $10,626 an acre fair? Like some of those acres have skyscrapers. Ok, one of those acres does. And 1 million of those acres are Glacier National Park.
- Does the “eh?” thing happen naturally or would we have to practice?
- Who negotiates the trade agreement with Idaho to keep us in potatoes for our poutine?
That was just a subset of the questions. I picked the ones funniest to me.
This was my favorite:
Do we build a wall against North Dakota?
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
I heard earth will end in twelve years I’m going with that.
I propose we “give” CA to Canada.
As a Canadian, I find the idea iintriguing…no not really. Does it mean they will give up that American flag? (Yes) I mean really what is it with that flag that every American feels they’ve got to waive it every two minutes.
As for healthcare, sure immediately, but everyone has to lose 20kg and run 2km to be accepted. Oh and we use the Metric system. You know, its so complicated, everything is divided by 100.
Any offers for California?
While the proposal is absurd, there is some merit to the idea. There’s a ton of public land around ski towns and national parks (not the national parks themselves) that would be incredibly valuable. A recent transaction in Aspen Colorado was two vacant lots that sold for $9 million, for example. While I don’t think the unimproved land outside town would sell for what might be the equivalent of $20 million per acre, it wouldn’t be zero for sure.
Of course the reason there’s all that public land around the elite’s enclaves is because they want to make sure the riffraff is kept out. After all, granddad bought the house when it was just a worthless wreck in an abandoned silver mining town, so it’s only right that the grandkids enjoy the result of his speculation without having to worry about “Vailification.”
If you ban anyone else from building cellphones that uses the “public electromagnetic spectrum,” except for a few well connected elites; those privileges can then sell, or rent, their phones for lots of money too. Ditto cars. And anything else.
While development stagnates, since why bother?. It’s what makes third world countries, third world countries. Instead of first world ones, where people are free to innovate, and supply whatever existing market demand there is; as cheaply, efficiently and abundantly as possible.
I say sell Florida instead. Half the cars on the road are from Ontario this time of year anyway. I just dropped $2 grand on an emergency room visit for a stupid kidney stone. They hooked me up to a saline bag and gave me some morphine and aspirin. I could go for some of that sweet Canadian single-payer. Canadian only though. I don’t think it’s something Washington could actually pull off.
eh?
I vote for Baja Saskatchewan!
I’m glad this petition appeared. Maybe people will start thinking of how monstrous our debt load has become.
If we can only theoretically expect $1T for Montana, we’d have to sell off half the country, and that’s just for the official national debt.
To make the Fed whole, we might have to sell off the entire western hemisphere!
I would not mind selling all the Red states as they are a drain on the US Treasury.
I can’t imagine the “Red States” would mind. So, I guess we have a win-win situation!
If the people of MT, WY, ID, ND, and SD want to secede and buy their freedom, how much would we need to pay the Government to leave us the hell alone?
Can we sell Illinois to Canada to include their massive government and public union pension debts?
I doubt Canada would take them.
Better yet, sell Manhattan back to the Dutch. Pay them to take it if they will agree to accept AOC in the deal.
Don’t you mean the indians? The dutch paid the indians worthless trinkets for the island.
We are pretty much doing the same thing today. The blankets and bead were nice, but after awhile they were just more garbage. Today we buy cell phones, appliances, etc, from the Chinese, and they, in turn, buy real estate. In a few years, the cell phones and appliances are just more garbage, but the Chinese will still own the real estate.