Are you the left?

[gaja]

The United States is unique in it's strong support of business and capitalism, as well as some other aspects of the US constitution.

I'm not the only one who disagrees with this - look at Germany, Switzerland...

When I looked it up, I came up with https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/1212/the-5-most-economically-free-countries-in-the-world.aspx

Sure, but Germany and Switzerland have other attributes that aren't so common in the US.

Switzerland has it's near universal militia.   Both Germany and the Swiss have a reputation for meticulousness that the US does not have.

Anyway the US is just a strawman.    My point remains that the different nation states offer a lot of diversity around the world.

I might be misunderstanding what you are arguing here, but the borders of nation states are continuously changing. Norway didn't gain independence until 1905, and only left with parts of the pre-union territory (lost Iceland, Faroes, Greenland, Jämtland, Härjedalen and Bohuslän). Earlier in history we lost Shetland, Orkneys, Hebridies, and Isle of Man. But the "new" borders split the Sami territories into four different countries. The different German states were only united into one country in 1871, while Switzerland still has four distinctive language/cultural regions and a lot of different (relatively independent) cantons.

In my view, the great variety in world has to do with the changes in the world; people moving, borders shifting, technology changing. The only thing we know for sure about borders, is that they will change. Trying to stop the change causes conflicts and wars.

[GuitarStv]

Stopping change might cause conflict and war, but randomly drawing lines on a map and calling the result a country has caused an awful lot more in recent memory.  :P

[gaja]

Stopping change might cause conflict and war, but randomly drawing lines on a map and calling the result a country has caused an awful lot more in recent memory.  :P

The big problem is that most areas have people with vastly different opinions about where the lines should be placed. Even relatively peaceful neighbours such as Greenland/Denmark and Canada. So no matter where they end up, someone will disagree. But yes, you are right: Belgium was a mistake.

:P

[deborah]

Stopping change might cause conflict and war, but randomly drawing lines on a map and calling the result a country has caused an awful lot more in recent memory.  :P

The big problem is that most areas have people with vastly different opinions about where the lines should be placed. Even relatively peaceful neighbours such as Greenland/Denmark and Canada. So no matter where they end up, someone will disagree. But yes, you are right: Belgium was a mistake.

:P

Most of Africa was more of a mistake.

[scottish]

The United States is unique in it's strong support of business and capitalism, as well as some other aspects of the US constitution.

I'm not the only one who disagrees with this - look at Germany, Switzerland...

When I looked it up, I came up with https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/1212/the-5-most-economically-free-countries-in-the-world.aspx

Sure, but Germany and Switzerland have other attributes that aren't so common in the US.

Switzerland has it's near universal militia.   Both Germany and the Swiss have a reputation for meticulousness that the US does not have.

Anyway the US is just a strawman.    My point remains that the different nation states offer a lot of diversity around the world.

I might be misunderstanding what you are arguing here, but the borders of nation states are continuously changing. Norway didn't gain independence until 1905, and only left with parts of the pre-union territory (lost Iceland, Faroes, Greenland, Jämtland, Härjedalen and Bohuslän). Earlier in history we lost Shetland, Orkneys, Hebridies, and Isle of Man. But the "new" borders split the Sami territories into four different countries. The different German states were only united into one country in 1871, while Switzerland still has four distinctive language/cultural regions and a lot of different (relatively independent) cantons.

In my view, the great variety in world has to do with the changes in the world; people moving, borders shifting, technology changing. The only thing we know for sure about borders, is that they will change. Trying to stop the change causes conflicts and wars.

Somebody up thread was arguing that we should eliminate all the borders between nations, with the intent being to allow the developing world the freedom to prosper like the developed world.   I may have misunderstood, but I didn't like the idea, so I was commenting that there are advantages to the way things are now.

[LonerMatt]

Diversity is not dependent on nation states. That's a stupid argument. Culture is not dependent on nation states. That's also a stupid argument.

[gaja]

Stopping change might cause conflict and war, but randomly drawing lines on a map and calling the result a country has caused an awful lot more in recent memory.  :P

The big problem is that most areas have people with vastly different opinions about where the lines should be placed. Even relatively peaceful neighbours such as Greenland/Denmark and Canada. So no matter where they end up, someone will disagree. But yes, you are right: Belgium was a mistake.

:P

Most of Africa was more of a mistake.

The African borders were deliberately set by gready bastards, and have caused only misery. Belgium, with their 5+ levels of bureaucracy and pissing statues, have at least some entertainment value.

I can agree that having different countries has value, since you can test different types of government, and adopt to the geographical differences. But the borders as they are today only have value if the inhabitants agree, and if they contribute to keeping the conflict level low.

To;dr: we would like the Faroes and Shetland back now, please. And we need to discuss the lack of payment for Isle of Man, Orkney, and the Hebridies before brexit goes through.