Jim;

We have to expand number 7 for California – we do have a rather large population. Legally, we are required by the Treaty of Guadalupe to be English and Spanish speaking in this state. We just do not honor treaties. Better add Vietnamese and Chinese to our list also. Not too many people use English in my area as a first language.

Tom




>>>What choice will there be - go voluntarily or be squashed into it!
>>
>>Or fight those who wish to control your life.
>>
>>Anyway, I'm very interested in your opinion in particular. If you had to lay down a set of conditions, which if met you would voluntarily join the US, what would they be?
>
>I'll give it a shot...
>
>1) Integrate "social costs" into "capitalism", particularly in all business decisions (all, allegedly, based on cost/benefits analysis and these presently exclude them and many are aimed at 'escaping' such (social) costs).
>
>2) STOP weilding the "big stick" that first includes 'willingness' to "buy" some commodity and then gets to TAKING it by direct or contrived means.
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>3) ELIMINATE the stranglehold that the Democratic Party and the Republican Party have together on the entire political system.
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>4) Have consistent foreign policies with EVERY COUNTRY. Why, today, is IRAQ handled differently than NORTH KOREA or SAUDI ARABIA. Why is CUBA handled differently than HAITI or CHINA. Why is CHINA dealt with at all?... the almighty buck, that's why.
>
>5) Continuation of Medicare in Canada at least as how it is handled today and decrease the enticement of doctors to US (high profit, therefore very high pay).
>
>6) Continuation, without an iota of change, the GUN laws/policies as applicable today in Canada, despite alleged constitutional "protections" that exist in (the rest of) the US.
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>7) Continuation of BILINGUALISM - English and French - as applicable in Canada today.
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>8) Continuation of Immigration policies as presently practised in Canada and of the general encouragement of "multiculturalism".
>
>That's my list after 5-10 minutes of thought.
>
>While I see benefits to 'joining' the US (and Mexico) as a single country, I feel that any of them would be too expensive compared to this list.
>
>There you have it.
>
>By the way... while I basically like the idea of using modern device capabilities to change the way voting and representation is done politically, there is the inherent danger of "rigging the system(s)".
>I've read of lots of instances where gambling machines are rigged at various levels in the manufacturing/distribution/usage chain, all of course for personal monetary gain.Just imagine what the odds for tampering are when POWER is the objective and when the entire population is invloved!!!!
>I'm afraid that there are, at least at present, far far too many "holes" that could easily be exploited by unscrupulous people bent on breaking the system for any such system to be FULLY TRUSTWORTHY, and I think it will be some time before that situation is changed.