As it stands the United States has a less than stellar reputation around the world and a lot of people would like it if we just stopped. And we are a little too integrated with the global community to just say "Fuck off rest of the world" and become completely isolationist. So instead imagine this. You turn on the TV tomorrow morning and there is breaking news. President Obama is making a speech and you can not believe what he is saying. According to your TV the president just told the world that the United States has found a perfect earth like world in the Alpha Centauri system. And not only that but the United States has perfected teleportation technology and that in 24 hours the United States, all of its citizens, all of its resource wealth, all of its assets and property, and all of the money and assets of its citizens will forever leave the earth and move to this new planet. Anyone who became a citizen after the age of 14 will be allowed to stay on earth if they choose but everything else goes. The only thing that will be left is a small embassy in Geneva that offers one service. You can apply for citizenship and come over to Alpha Centauri but the move is permanent. In short America disappears tomorrow and there will be no contact with the United States afterwords short of moving there forever. What would your opinions be? What would the effects be?
And for us Americans what would we do to celebrate our new little planet?
EDIT: I shouldn't have to point this out but it is entirely theoretical. America is gone tomorrow. What would you do?
EDIT #2: Ok so people seem to be getting more involved with the minor details than the main point of the thread. So I decided to make a little information packet for the two groups who would be involved in this discussion. If you are a member of one group then please do not comment on the situation of the other group. Also for the sake of preventing people from saying "We would just develop portal technology too" lets say the technology uses an alien artifact that can not be replicated with modern technology and we took it with us when we left in order to maintain the two way portal in Geneva. (It needs to be two way so that embassy officials can get back and forth to handle citizenship requests.) American citizens who don't wish to leave may apply for foreign citizenship and will be allowed to stay on earth until that citizenship is granted.
And for us Americans what would we do to celebrate our new little planet?
EDIT: I shouldn't have to point this out but it is entirely theoretical. America is gone tomorrow. What would you do?
EDIT #2: Ok so people seem to be getting more involved with the minor details than the main point of the thread. So I decided to make a little information packet for the two groups who would be involved in this discussion. If you are a member of one group then please do not comment on the situation of the other group. Also for the sake of preventing people from saying "We would just develop portal technology too" lets say the technology uses an alien artifact that can not be replicated with modern technology and we took it with us when we left in order to maintain the two way portal in Geneva. (It needs to be two way so that embassy officials can get back and forth to handle citizenship requests.) American citizens who don't wish to leave may apply for foreign citizenship and will be allowed to stay on earth until that citizenship is granted.
We get there and the planet has the exact same atmosphere as earth and almost the same amount of Water and landmass some of the ocean was traded with earth in the transfer which gives earth some free alien fish and the United States is now located in the middle of an ocean with the climate about the same as it was on earth. There is an economic collapse early on in the colonization effort due to an absence of international trade. Though there is still a large amount of resource wealth in the United States and now we have an entire planet to ourselves. This means that economic recovery is virtually guaranteed and now we don't have to pay the debt because good luck collecting suckers! Also you have to go (we are ignoring the legal ramifications for the sake of argument) if you are an American citizen who was either born in the United States or were under the age of 14 when you became a citizen of the United States. Anyone who was 14 years of age or older when they became American citizens can choose to have their Citizenship revoked and move to a different country. They can reapply at the Geneva embassy if they change their minds but the move would be permanent. Those who became citizens after the age of 14 but are still legal minors would require permission from their legal guardian to stay on earth.
The United States and its territories, all of its infrastructure and property and the land itself is gone. Though you did get some free water with tasty alien fish to replace it. You have no idea what is happening to America and you get no word from there apart what rumors you can get from the Embassy officials. If you so chose you could potentially move to the United States on Planet America (working title) but once again you have no idea what it is like there and you aren't going to know because the United States has basically said "Piss off world! You don't appreciate us so we are going to leave!" Whether you disagree with that statement or not is irrelevant to the Americans because they are all gone. what now?
