If Russia wanted to buy Alaska back from the United States, and you had the dictatorial power to approve or reject, would you approve, or say, “Under no circumstances?”
If yes, what would be the absolute minimum price to be acceptable? $15 trillion? $30 trillion?
(Assuming Russia was somehow could afford it.)
I would send them Sarah Palin and call the matter closed.
Russia could never afford it. Alaska is too beautiful a place to let the Russians have (except for most of the people.)
Are you trying to start a war?
How much are each of the 663,000 human beings living in Alaska worth each?
I think we need to know that before we decide whether to sell them or not.
We wouldn’t sell the people; we’d offer them relocation to the “lower 49” – or they could choose to remain. Russia might well make a special deal, where they could keep U.S. citizenship, and just live there as permanent legal residents. It could all be handled within the framework of existing laws.
But how much money? No way. I’m not sure Russia’s entire annual budget would be enough to pay the interest on that debt!
However much their ancestors were worth in 1867, adjusted for inflation. This site says there were 2,000 people in Alaska in 1867, which seems ridiculously low to me, but that would give a figure of $3600 / person. A random inflation calculator gives $59119.47 in 2013 dollars for $3600 in 1867 dollars (close enough). So, $59,119.47 × 663,000 = $39,196,208,610. I say go for it.
No amount they could afford . . . but we could throw in the entire Palin family, to sour the pot.
“Hey, Sarah… now you really CAN see Russia [del]from[/del] in your back yard!”
If we sold Alaska, the northernmost point in the US would revert to being that stupid little knob at the top of Minnesota. We can’t have that.
Alaska is not available in any store at any price.
They’d be getting all that oil that pays supposedly each and every Alaskan a stipend, No not a chance, I’ve never been there, but think it is a bad idea. As someone above said send them Sarah Palin. Maybe she can tell them how to run their country!
Plus $5,000 per acre+ improvements.
Anybody who’s played Risk™ knows that’s the fastest way to total domination!
Alaska used to be quite useful and the people quite pleasant. Now it’s just a useless appendage, sucking up tax dollars at an unprecedented rate and infested with political ideologues. I say sell the bitch before it sucks us dry.
Chefguy, born and raised Alaskan ::turns to the camera and allows a single tear to trickle slowly down his face::
On a serious note, a fair sale price does exist, does it not? We could come up with a reasonable estimate to the worth of Alaska, factoring in untapped natural resources and factoring in the fact that Alaska may potentially grow in value if global warming makes it more habitable.
If the Russians offer us significantly more than the value of the entire place from even a generous assessment of it’s value, would it not be a good financial decision to sell?
Now, of course, Russia can’t actually offer that, probably - Alaska is probably realistically worth trillions. Another much more significant issue is that it’s not worth it to Russia to buy it. They already have a vast tract of territory very similar to Alaska called Siberia, and they have yet to come close to exploiting it’s vast natural resources. Why would they need or want another chunk of Siberia? Isn’t this why they unloaded it on us in the first place?
In the modern world, at least in the present era, the powerful nations are not those with natural resources, they are those with top tier human resources. There’s plenty of oil and metal to do a lot of things, the limiting factor is the human labor to actually turn those resources into valuable products and to invent new products to create. This is why countries with top tier human resources are powerful, modern places (such as Japan) while those who mismanage their people or lack the fundamental talents do poorly.
When was the last time an inhabited territory or part of a nation was sold to another nation? (I’m sure there have been threads on this, but I’m not finding anything in a search.) Anything since the U.S. Virgin Islands?
Yes, plus if they hadn’t sold it to us then Britain next door would probably have taken it with hardly a fight. (There’s no way Russia could defend Alaska, and they knew it.)
Well, my first question would be why they’re expecting ME to make the decision, when I’m horribly unqualified and completely uninformed.
Alaska GDP is about $60 billion and the state has around $52 billion in the Alaska Permanent Fund, making it the 25th largest sovereign fund in the world. I would think around $500 billion would be the rock bottom price, but once it stops being part of the US and becomes part of Russia it will lose a lot of… goodwill, for want of a better word… and the value would drop quite a bit.
It would probably make more sense to sell it to the Canadians.
“No, Comrades, but Texas is for sale–kinda the same thing, only warmer.”