Note:  This scenario could be any state that leaves the union….

From time to time I post about the doings in my state of Mississippi….basically to let my readers know what goes on here for a lot of people probably could not find my state on a map.

Back during the years of the Obama admin there was lost of talk about Texas seceding from the union and forming their own nation….there even other states that were thinking along their lines most of them red states and their dislike for anything democratic.

Back then I thought what if Mississippi acted along those lines….then I would smile and think not a chance…..why?  Mississippi depends too heavily on the federal budget for their own state budget….but it was still something to think about….

And Pierre Lemieux did just that….

Mississippi would be a poor country relative to the United States.  (ya think since it is the poorest state I cannot see much changing) The average hourly wage in Mississippi is $23.91, compared to $38.41 in California (Bureau of Labor Statistics, data for May 2024). On average, wages are thus 38% lower in Mississippi than in California. For the whole (current) USA, the average wage is $32.66, which means that Mississippian wages are on average (about) 27% lower than in the rest of the United States. As a newly sovereign country, Mississippi would be much poorer than the US, although still wealthier than, say, Vietnam or China.

Voices would be raised in the (remaining) United States to claim that American businesses cannot compete against their Mississippian counterparts given the latter’s “unfair” wage advantage. “We need fair trade, an equal playing field, with Mississippi,” American lobbyists and politicians would proclaim.

After the first national-account system in Mississippi is set up and its customs authorities have become effective enough at measuring trade flows, the new data would lead to further conflict. By virtue of a frontier having been drawn on the map, the trade deficit would suddenly become a politically contentious issue. It is likely that Mississippi currently has a trade deficit with the rest of the US, although it cannot be measured in the absence of border surveillance and control. After independence, many Mississippian lobbyists and politicians would get all pumped up about the trade deficit.

From a liberal-individualist viewpoint, nothing would have really changed: it would still be individual Mississippians and their private organizations trading with Americans and the latter’s private organizations. Many variables, including a few new ones, would adjust between the poorer traders in Mississippi and the richer traders in the US: the terms of trade and (if Mississippi had its own currency) currency exchange rates; interest rates; foreign investment flows; public policy and government intervention, etc.

It should be obvious that few individuals would become richer if the American state imposed tariffs on imports from Mississippi, or if the Mississippian state imposed tariffs on goods imported from the US. It would be the contrary: most people on both sides of the border would become poorer—and probably to a greater extent on the Mississippian side because of the relative size of the two economies. Nobody would become richer except for government favorites and cronies.

If Mississippi Became a Sovereign Country

Until Mississippi moves past the ‘good ol’ boys’ mindset it will be the poorest whether a state or its own country.

Hopefully you read about my state….kinda boring at times but it does have its points.

I Reade. I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”