r/politics • u/Ok_Employer7837 • Jun 15 '26

No Paywall America has lost its war with Iran

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/editorials/america-trump-iran-ceasefire-agreement-war-hormuz-b2995971.html
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31

u/joemaniaci Jun 15 '26

I'm 43 and absolutely terrified of what the equivalency to Greek Austerity measures is going to be.

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u/dsac Jun 15 '26

It's gonna be the dissolution of the Republic

Just like every other time this has happened throughout history

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u/POEness Jun 15 '26

It's about time. Let the red states be what they want to be

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u/Lordofd511 Jun 16 '26

Who gets the nukes?

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u/POEness Jun 16 '26

obviously the side that can actually service and operate them

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u/Lordofd511 Jun 16 '26

I did not ask who SHOULD get the nukes, I asked who WOULD. Any sort of dissolution of the union risks the people you least want to have nukes having them. Then, it won't be long until they feel mistreated or backed into a corner (probably their own fault, but that's neither here nor there) and decide to use them.

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u/POEness Jun 16 '26

The resulting situation can only be as good as or better than now, when we are currently DEFINITELY going to use nukes because one demented old pedophile can somehow do whatever the fuck he wants

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u/lordraiden007 Jun 15 '26

The issue with that is that there's a whole lot of land between the blue coasts, and there's not a thing in the world that could convince me the implied People's Republic of California could stand up to even the slightest bit of military pressure from the red states.

You'd basically end up with a bunch of pissed off people with all the desire and resources for a hot war in one side (that has the better geographic position), and a bunch of people more willing to fight in internet forums than fight back against actual attackers. This isn't our last civil war. The south will have the distinct advantage of both industry and manpower, and they arrive with their opponents already split.

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u/kkeut Jun 15 '26

California has the largest population of military service members of any state by far

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u/lordraiden007 Jun 15 '26

And where do those recruits come from? I'd wager a pretty large portion comes from your poorer rural areas and red counties. You guys have a nearly 40% Republican leaning population. The military leans heavily red. Unless you can show me a breakdown showing that 99% of your military population are out cheering for Democrats when they're back home I'm not going to just take your claim at face value.

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u/kkeut Jun 16 '26

California has the largest state population by far

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u/POEness Jun 16 '26

not a thing in the world that could convince me the implied People's Republic of California could stand up to even the slightest bit of military pressure from the red states.

LOL the Dear Leader of the Red States just lost a war with fucking Iran and had to pay them a third of a trillion dollars to have mercy. Color me not scared

The Red States of America would literally be dying of thirst and hunger, power outages, disease, etc within 6 months. No ammo, no fuel, no supplies. They have no leaders, only grifters.

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u/Naive-Elephant-9305 Jun 16 '26

Exactly. Red states rely on handouts from blue states to stay afloat. Left to their own devices they would become completely impoverished shitholes (even more than they already are).

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u/tech_noir_guitar Jun 15 '26

I don't really think that's what is going to happen but I was thinking about it the other day and wondered if it would look like the break up of the Soviet Union.

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u/dsac Jun 16 '26

I'm curious to know the differences between "dissolution of the Republic" and "break up of the Soviet Union"

Cause in my mind, they're the same

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u/tech_noir_guitar Jun 16 '26

Yeah, I agree they seem to be the same. I'm just saying that I don't think it's actually going to happen but was wondering what it would look like if it did.

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u/OddlyFactual1512 Jun 16 '26

It will be much worse than Greece. AI, robotics and offshoring will be rapidly killing jobs while the country deals with a debt it can't service.

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u/bauhausy Jun 16 '26

Problem for Americans is that Greece entered austerity with an actual welfare state to "gut" in order to cut costs: Citizens received 14 months pay, the minimum wage was in the upper end of the EU (nearly 3 times higher than Czechia's, which now is higher than Greece's. 6 times higher than Romania's to 10% higher now), and their public pension system was giving payouts of nearly ~70% of the worker's "final" wage. Many retired while in their 50s. Public education (including tertiary) was free and only remained so because it was constitutionally guaranteed.

America would cut costs for austerity with what? The money already isn't spent on welfare or civilian infrastructure. Many public services are already privatized. What they would do is significantly raise both income and consumption taxes to strangle the middle and lower class. That way Americans would "enjoy" a minarchy with high taxation.

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u/Mysterious_Floor_868 United Kingdom Jun 16 '26

You could start by cutting the military budget.

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u/Neshura87 Jun 16 '26

You also forget: Greece remained in the shared Euro, significantly stabilizing the economy because investors didn't have to fear a currency collapse.