This Venture Capitalist Wants California to Split into Six States. Here's Why He's Right.

From:  World.Mic 

By Jeff Fong  December 27, 2013

 

This Venture Capitalist Wants California to Split into Six States. Here's Why He's Right. Image Credit: Fox Business
 

Tech investor Tim Draper wants to see California split six ways. His plan would dissolve California into six separate states by cutting along existing county lines and, of course, Silicon Valley would be one of the new states born out of the deal.

Draper isn't the first Silicon Valley type to suggest that small is beautiful. Peter Thiel is a major supporter of the Seasteading Institute, an organization that researches the possibility of small, politically autonomous communities at sea. Entrepreneur and Stanford lecturer Balaji Srinivasan related similar ideas at a recent talk hosted by Y-Combinator. Google CEO Larry Page has also made comments supporting the same basic set of ideas.

The immediate reactions to Draper's proposal – much the same as the reactions to Page, Srinivasan, and Thiel – have been less than positive. The general criticism is that it's a scheme to carve out a low-tax enclave for the rich, or some kind of play at creating a techno-Libertarian utopia. References to Galt's Gulch and Rapture abound.

But the Silicon Valley tech crowd isn't the only group of Californians ready to ditch Sacramento. California's rural North has had an on-again, off-again love affair with statehood since at least 1941. The big complaint is that the less densely populated Northern counties will never have representation on par with urban power centers like San Francisco or Los Angeles. Instead of dealing with a state government that can't properly represent them and doesn't understand their particular needs, many rural communities in the North would prefer to band together and look after themselves.  MORE