Australia becoming the 51st state.

[Wryan]

LOL, WTF? A nation becoming ONE state.

Which brings me to the point of hyper partisan politics. If it slanted one way or the other, it's not happening. For instance if Puerto Rico wanted statehood, no way. Yes P.R. does bring some headaches that conservatives could use as legit ammunition. Basically the financial trouble, but it would be more about increasing power to the other party.

It's not as funny as you may think!

The state of California ON ITS OWN has a higher population (almost double) and a higher GDP than Australia does.

A lot of people have mentioned that the two cultures are different. As far as Americans are concerned, can it not be argued that the USA has a number of different cultures within it anyway? Absorbing a foreign nation with a different culture again would not be such a shock to the Americans I would think.

It would be quite the shock to Australians though. But there is not necessarily any reason why Australian culture would suddenly change simply due to becoming a state of the USA. Yes, laws and politics would be quite different and could take some adjusting. But I don't see culture changing that quickly.

You also have to remember that if the USA absorbed Australia today, none of the arguments that anybody is making would mean anything in say 200 years. In the future, the people then would simply know the USA to exist both on the North American continent and the Australian continent. Keep in mind that in this hypothetical scenario, Australia would have voted and asked to join the USA. We are not talking about a hostile takeover here. This would result in a distinct difference of the attitudes of people living on the Australian continent in the future.

[Deleted]

Why would Australia accept such a big cut to its quality of life?

[Skyforge1]

As an Australian I would like to pass!
Feel free to take the kiwis though

Jokes aside I think making ourselves the 51st US state would do the opposite of making Aus a safer place to be

[Mormolyce]

The state of California ON ITS OWN has a higher population (almost double) and a higher GDP than Australia does.

To be fair you could say the same of California versus many of the US's smaller states.

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As an Australian I would like to pass!
Feel free to take the kiwis though

If we're getting absorbed into the US I think that would mean NZ would become part of Canada.

Come to think of it, I wonder if Canada wants another state...

[Wryan]

When they have a point and purpose designed to educate. This thread is merely here to trigger and troll people into a for or against USA battle. Or for or against Trump. It is not about Aussies really becoming Americans. This forum while claiming to be above it is basically defined by nation bashing (as long as it goes in one direction).

Not true. The USA absorbing a smaller first world nation would be a far bigger event than opinions on Trump, or peoples opinions one way or another. And in the future under such an arrangement, these opinions would be completely irrelevant.

I did not intend on people to nation bash. If people express themselves in this way then it merely displays the level of critical thought they are able to apply. All I was after was a bit of intelligent discussion around a what-if scenario that intrigues me. I've lurked these forums for many years, and have posted very little in the past. But I do know that intelligent people are on here somewhere

[RapBreon]

I really don't feel like we're culturally similar at all. Sure we've become quite Americanised over the years, but we're a long way off being 'close enough'.

If we were to be absorbed by another Anglo-centric country, we'd have more common with the likes of Canada. If I had a choices It'd probably be Canada, Germany, UK, The Nordic Countries, New Zealand (we'd absorb them in this case tee hee) or hell even France long before America. There might be more obvious outward differences in some of those cases, but the way the state operates and treats its citizens (and thus values) is much closer to now (and more important to me).

It's true every country has problems, but American ones I frankly would not feel safe with. That being said, I recognise the value of the country, I just don't want to be part of it!

[Z-Man]

Come to think of it, I wonder if Canada wants another state...

Washington already called dibs on that.

[Wryan]

I really don't feel like we're culturally similar at all. Sure we've become quite Americanised over the years, but we're a long way off being 'close enough'.

If we were to be absorbed by another Anglo-centric country, we'd have more common with the likes of Canada. If I had a choices It'd probably be Canada, Germany, UK, The Nordic Countries, New Zealand (we'd absorb them in this case tee hee) or hell even France long before America. There might be more obvious outward differences in some of those cases, but the way the state operates and treats its citizens (and thus values) is much closer to now (and more important to me).

It's true every country has problems, but American ones I frankly would not feel safe with. That being said, I recognise the value of the country, I just don't want to be part of it!

That is a fair comment. I can see how there would be advantages to joining any/all of those other nations. However Australia absorbing into any or all of those countries would not make that union the most powerful nation on Earth still. (Or would it? I actually don't know about that..)

The reason why I chose the US for this particular what-if scenario is that they are the sole superpower on the planet. By a large margin. And that is a truly unique position to be in which presents options to the US that no other nation has. On the flipside, Australia these days could be considered a contender as a regional power. Its culture has been shaped by its penal beginnings and its colonial history. It has existed under the umbrella of a greater power for as long as it has been colonised. With a union between Australia and America, Australia would no longer be subservient (for lack of better words) to a greater power. It would be THE greater power. And the culture change that comes along with that would eventuate over the years to the point where nobody would recognise life as being any different.

[zlygork]

When my parents started considering emmigrating, it was either Canada or Australia. I don't know specific of australian life, but that's enough for me to believe that they are better off not joining the USA, at least on a societal lvl

[Klingers]

I think a better idea would be for New York, Hawaii, California, Washington State and Oregon to secede from the union and join Canada, New Zealand and Australia. We could call the new country "The Conglomerated States of Sane People".

[Nitros14]

Please don't contaminate anyone else with your insane gun culture America.

[RapBreon]

That is a fair comment. I can see how there would be advantages to joining any/all of those other nations. However Australia absorbing into any or all of those countries would not make that union the most powerful nation on Earth still. (Or would it? I actually don't know about that..)

The reason why I chose the US for this particular what-if scenario is that they are the sole superpower on the planet. By a large margin. And that is a truly unique position to be in which presents options to the US that no other nation has. On the flipside, Australia these days could be considered a contender as a regional power. Its culture has been shaped by its penal beginnings and its colonial history. It has existed under the umbrella of a greater power for as long as it has been colonised. With a union between Australia and America, Australia would no longer be subservient (for lack of better words) to a greater power. It would be THE greater power. And the culture change that comes along with that would eventuate over the years to the point where nobody would recognise life as being any different.

I understand that the main thrust of your argument is military strength and power. But, it's just not really something overly important to me. Power at all the negatives associated with being a part of America proper just isn't worth it to me. The internal threat (healthcare, welfare, wealth, education, infrastructure, etc.) is far more relevant to the every citizen than the external (war and foreign influence) in my view. Power to act within those internal circumstances is worth more to me than the power to resist those external threats, as they are more relevant to my everyday life. The sacrifice to shift that power to the external at the cost 'American problems', is hella not worth to me.

I'd rather be 'subservient' (we are in technicality, but practicality not so much), and collect my rubber stamp, let the UK think its relevant (they're happy, we're happy, win-win) and move on with my own thing. If the UK was very involved and forceful I might have different opinion (degree of influence is everything here). It would take a lot though for me to view American governance as better than what I have now, if not outright deconstruction of the current status quo. I'm happy being a 'vassal', if I get to maintain my amazing quality of life and other socialist (I know that's a dirty word for Americans, despite the amount of lives it improves, that's illustrative of why I wouldn't want a merger) perks, not to mention we're left alone as is.

A quick note on culture change. While it would eventually blend, I'd contend the problems we would like to avoid, would still come to fruition, we'd just be more accepting (think gun culture) over time. So to me that's still a problem.

[rosebull]

I think a better idea would be for New York, Hawaii, California, Washington State and Oregon to secede from the union and join Canada, New Zealand and Australia. We could call the new country "The Conglomerated States of Sane People".

Must be interesting living in a deluded fantasy world shaped to your current social bubble where you consider challenging opinons insane

[Feral Camel]

Yeah... nah.

I see no real benefit for Australia. I've always been fond of the idea of pushing for better movement between the CANZUK countries, I feel we all have more aligned values then with the US.

Australia already has a number of States and regions that feel they're unrepresented, We also have enough of our own political BS to deal with. Northern Queensland believe they should be their own state. WA has had talks (that were never going to go anywhere) about secession (WAxit). Our Inner cities also seem to be becoming more left wing while recently we have seen support grow for One Nation (Far right party). Hypothetically while we're a fairly conservative nation I could not see us wanting an American style religious conservative government.

[Thoughtful Trolli]

The last place that wanted to become 51 got hurricaned over it's ass pretty hard,

are you trying to hurt australia? what the fuck is wrong with you!

I can only support this if your genuine intention is to carry the funnel web spiders across the earth in a miraculous wind blown scheme, leading to massive injury to a wide variety of motherfuckers

[Skyforge1]

If you give us Hawaii we will give you Tasmania

[tkioz]

Yeah how about no. You can keep your fucked up culture to yourselves, we don't need your shit ontop of our own.

[Unhinged]

I think a better idea would be for New York, Hawaii, California, Washington State and Oregon to secede from the union and join Canada, New Zealand and Australia. We could call the new country "The Conglomerated States of Sane People".

Australia would have to dump Queensland if you only want sane people.

[theone1]

Yeah how about no. You can keep your fucked up culture to yourselves, we don't need your shit ontop of our own.

Is that why you idiots love using american technology?? american culture runs rapid in your country but your just too blind to see it or your used to it and cant notice it, so pipe down and shut up.

[Deleted]

Your has-been country is nothing these days, your empire has vanished, you dont have the funding anymore, you lost 1776 war against poorly armed american/french soldiers. Brits got cocky and got taste of their own medicine.

America is the most powerful country in the world right now .

Is that the America that lost the Afghan war against poorly armed medieval savages?