# Which state would make the worst independent country? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 25, 2014, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-state-would-make-the-worst-independent-country/684491 "2014-03-25T00:34:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![AnthonyElite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b487fb/32.png) [@AnthonyElite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnthonyElite)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2014, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-state-would-make-the-worst-independent-country/684491/41 "2014-03-26T18:19:01Z")
The answer here to me is Rhode Island. The state is incredibly corrupt. Without anyone to hold them accountable it’d become a mob-run entity. ---
**Author:** ![Fool\_in\_the\_Rain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8491ac/32.png) [@Fool\_in\_the\_Rain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fool_in_the_Rain)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2014, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-state-would-make-the-worst-independent-country/684491/42 "2014-03-26T18:56:26Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > I would have to vote for Rhode Island. Don’t get me wrong, I love Rhode Island and live 15 minutes from the border but it has all kinds of problems even being a state. It is the smallest one for starters, smaller than many other state’s counties. It also has the 2nd highest unemployment rate in the U.S. behind Michigan plus it is hopelessly corrupt and still has a large degree of Mafia control. Driving across the Massachusetts border into Woonsocket, RI on back roads lets you know very quickly you just passed from a reasonably wealthy area into a place with serious problems even if you don’t notice the sign. It is like the U.S./Mexico border in parts. I know the whole state isn’t like that. Newport and its small region are very wealthy but that is just ripe for a hostile takeover if it became an independent country. Rhode Island has open ocean access so that is a plus but they have problems today that their neighbors do not due to systemic government issues so I have low faith in their ability to run it as a nation. > \ Living in RI, I have to agree. **Shag** has it down pat. If this was a political forum, we could go on for days… ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2014, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-state-would-make-the-worst-independent-country/684491/43 "2014-03-26T21:21:17Z")
Do you remember that Twilight Zone episode where the town was lifted off the planet so the Aliens could test how to get humans to surrender…I always wondered if anyone would notice if Kansas were taken off the planet. The same about leaving the Union. Only during March Madness does any one even know the state exists. Even the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals are in Missouri. On their own though? It might revert back to 1890 but it would probably continue to exist OK. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2014, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-state-would-make-the-worst-independent-country/684491/44 "2014-03-26T21:33:26Z")
> [@AnthonyElite](#): > > The answer here to me is Rhode Island. The state is incredibly corrupt. Without anyone to hold them accountable it’d become a mob-run entity. More corrupt than Louisiana, you think? That’s the first state that leaps to mind for me. I’ve always thought of that place as hanging on by a thread. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2014, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-state-would-make-the-worst-independent-country/684491/45 "2014-03-26T22:03:44Z")
> [@DrumBum](#): > > Is there enough area to store all of the water if you put a dam at the CO - UT border ? Seems like Grand Junction and a few other towns might have to relocate. They could dam up an uninhabited canyon and divert the river. I don’t think that people realize just how much water flows out of Colorado. In addition to the Colorado, which is the only reason cities like Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles can exist in their current sizes, you have the Platte Rivers which irrigate most of Nebraska, and the Arkansas River, which provides water to all of Southern Kansas. ---
**Author:** ![LonghornDave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a87d85/32.png) [@LonghornDave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonghornDave)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2014, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-state-would-make-the-worst-independent-country/684491/46 "2014-03-26T22:15:05Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > Texas would be a great contender, not that it would not make it on it’s own, but it just seems like it would not be a pleasant place to live in and may quickly become a police state, well more then it is know to be now. Uh what? I know this board like to hate all things Texas, but how in the world do you get the idea that Texas is some sort of police state? If anything, Texas would trend toward the opposite with it’s push for less regulations and somewhat libertarian bent. Obviously there’s a social conservative element, but there’s also a very strong individual rights element. Anyone that’s not being biased is going to consider Texas to be at least one of the top three best off states to be independent countries. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2014, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-state-would-make-the-worst-independent-country/684491/47 "2014-03-26T22:33:37Z")
> [@LonghornDave](#): > > Anyone that’s not being biased is going to consider Texas to be at least one of the top three best off states to be independent countries. They’ve been one before. =) ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2014, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-state-would-make-the-worst-independent-country/684491/48 "2014-03-26T22:58:52Z")
> [@StusBlues](#): > > More corrupt than Louisiana, you think? That’s the first state that leaps to mind for me. I’ve always thought of that place as hanging on by a thread. I am from Louisiana originally and Illinois, Rhode Island, and Louisiana are the unholy trinity when it comes to corruption. However, I wouldn’t vote for Louisiana especially over other choices. It has already been part of several different countries and been semi-independent at times and done just fine. It has vast amounts of natural resources from natural gas to oil to seafood and it is also an agricultural state. Most importantly, it has New Orleans and control of the mouth of the Mississippi River. That last point is perhaps the most important and why it was considered such a valuable area early in European colonization. Louisiana could exist successfully as something like a prosperous Central American country today if it had to make it on its own. Charging tariffs for everything going up and down the Mississippi River back and forth from the heartland could support a great deal of it on its own just like Panama and the Panama Canal. The recent natural gas boom just adds to that. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-state-would-make-the-worst-independent-country/684491/49 "2014-03-27T01:22:38Z")
> [@Lamar\_Mundane](#): > > They could dam up an uninhabited canyon and divert the river. I don’t think that people realize just how much water flows out of Colorado. In addition to the Colorado, which is the only reason cities like Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles can exist in their current sizes, you have the Platte Rivers which irrigate most of Nebraska, and the Arkansas River, which provides water to all of Southern Kansas. Colorado would have to build a minimum of 5 dams to effectively slow the Colorado River. And all they could do is slow it, not block it. The Platte River is problematical, since Colorado can only hope to interfere with the South Platte, which is by far the smaller of the two. The Arkansas is a better target, but then, what do you do with the water? It has to flow or it will just overflow. Water war won’t keep Colorado in being for long. Nah, Colorado would be better served keeping their neighbors happy with cheap grass. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-state-would-make-the-worst-independent-country/684491/50 "2014-03-27T02:29:33Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Colorado would have to build a minimum of 5 dams to effectively slow the Colorado River. And all they could do is slow it, not block it. The Platte River is problematical, since Colorado can only hope to interfere with the South Platte, which is by far the smaller of the two. The Arkansas is a better target, but then, what do you do with the water? It has to flow or it will just overflow. Water war won’t keep Colorado in being for long. > > Nah, Colorado would be better served keeping their neighbors happy with cheap grass. 😛 They’d sell it to downriver states. It’s not as if Arizona could say “Let’s just wait until their dams overflow.” Phoenix would be a ghost town by then. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-state-would-make-the-worst-independent-country/684491/51 "2014-03-27T03:14:00Z")
Arizona would Sheriff Joe after your water-hogging asses. Besides. it would take years to get those dams built, and if the down-river states play their cards right, Colorado could never get the necessary materials to build them. It isn’t like there are steel mills outside Golden. No, Colorado would have to play nice to survive as an independent country. Hell, any state would. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-state-would-make-the-worst-independent-country/684491/52 "2014-03-27T12:47:03Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > The diamond mine didn’t pay off commercially, and is a tourist trap, where one pays to dig. Not to say that some guys have not found diamonds. > > I don’t believe Reynolds mines bauxite here anymore. “Company towns” that house workmen, cheap small houses built by the company are deserted in Bauxite and Tull now. Dammit! The only time I get to use what I learned in junior high school geography class about natural resources in Arkanas and it’s completely useless. THANKS OBAMA. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-state-would-make-the-worst-independent-country/684491/53 "2014-03-27T13:33:22Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > Dammit! The only time I get to use what I learned in junior high school geography class about natural resources in Arkanas and it’s completely useless. THANKS OBAMA. They teach about Arkansas in the British public school system? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-state-would-make-the-worst-independent-country/684491/54 "2014-03-27T16:03:34Z")
Well, everything _I_ learned in the British school system was about Arkansas. I recognise that is only one data point. Still! ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-state-would-make-the-worst-independent-country/684491/55 "2014-03-27T16:15:49Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > They teach about Arkansas in the British public school system? > :dubious: I’m American, born and raised in Pennsylvania. I moved to the UK almost 20 years ago, long after I graduated from high school. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-state-would-make-the-worst-independent-country/684491/56 "2014-03-27T16:21:31Z")
They teach about Arkansas in the Pennsylvania school system? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-state-would-make-the-worst-independent-country/684491/57 "2014-03-27T19:12:06Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > They teach about Arkansas in the Pennsylvania school system? This forum requires that you wait 60 seconds between posts. Please try again in 1 seconds. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-state-would-make-the-worst-independent-country/684491/58 "2014-03-28T10:30:30Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > They teach about Arkansas in the Pennsylvania school system? They do, yes. Or they did. In my day 8th-grade geography was a mishmash of factoids about natural resources around the world, with no real explanation about why this was important information. The bit about Arkansas having the only diamond mines in the US stuck with me. I dunno why I remember the bauxite thing, except maybe that “bauxite” is a funny word. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-state-would-make-the-worst-independent-country/684491/59 "2014-03-28T14:05:35Z")
I think recycling caused Reynolds not to make enough money mining Bauxite. My Father in Law was a geologist, and inspected drill cores for them. I believe there were looking for various clays. That is most of what they sent him, anyway. I vaguely remember in grade school learning the capitol, state bird and major product of the various states. An true to the lessons of childhood, when I drove through Pennsylvania there seemed to be nothing but corn and hex signs. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-state-would-make-the-worst-independent-country/684491/60 "2014-03-28T14:22:53Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I vaguely remember in grade school learning the capitol, state bird and major product of the various states. An true to the lessons of childhood, when I drove through Pennsylvania there seemed to be nothing but corn and hex signs. > :dubious: Corn, hex signs, anthracite and Penn State fans. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-state-would-make-the-worst-independent-country/684491.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-state-would-make-the-worst-independent-country/684491.md?page=4)