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 You are voted the very first apolitical president of the U.S. and you must eliminate two extant states using ONLY logic and reasoning.
Which two do you eliminate?
(Try as best you can to eliminate your political biases, please!)
ANSWER
Good answers: Vermont, Wyoming, North Dakota, Montana, Alaska
The questions asks for two states, but there are more than two possible answers - depending on your logic and reasoning.
The critical lens this question should be viewed with is: What happens the people and assets of that state? And what embodies a state? Is it the people, the institutions and assets, both, or something else entirely?
That isn't provided, so you need to infer it.
- Option 1: People in those states die; the assets stay
- Option 2: People disappear (think Leftovers style); assets stay
- Option 3: People move elsewhere; the asset stay
- Option 4: People move elsewhere; the assets are removed entirely
- Option 5: People and assets succeed as an independent nation
That means the driving decision factors should be population, economy and 'culture.'
If we prioritize human lives, the answers for Options 1 & 2 would be Wyoming and Vermont - that states with the least amount of people affected. The same is true for Option 3, which would create millions of refugees.
Option 4: So the people move and you lose the economies and assets of two states. You might value the mountains of Vermont and Yellowstone National Park over say, the barren tundra of North Dakota (GDP #44, population #47). Or Montana (GDP #47, population #43). Alaska (GDP #48, population #48) is huge, so there's that. It also might be more strategically important than other choices.
Option 5:
Well they won't be U.S. citizens, and will remain alive. Without being cruel, you can disregard a lot those considerations. This would point to a strictly asset management approach. Many of the above answers would fit in here. If you're a fan of contiguity, you might pick Hawaii (GDP #41),
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