Flaming_Maniac wrote:
I think that a large part of it is not necessary the division of our government, but our natural geographic division. There is a lot of open and sparsely populated area that forces people to be a little more self-reliant, as well as social divisions. (east coast, west coast, deep south, etc.) In some ways this makes us like separate countries more than a political system ever could.
Very true. Geography is definitely a big factor (no pun intended).
What you're talking about is often referred to as sectionalism. It has been a continual strain on our system in terms of guiding social policies, but it does provide the independent mindset necessary for organizing regional infrastructure in such a way as to keep things like education, policing, and emergency services mostly functional.
But, also like you said earlier, this also provides for a lot of variance in the services. You're in Texas, right? I don't know a whole lot about Texas, but I get the impression that most of it is heavily oriented toward the private sector and that the low taxes there sometimes results in lower quality education and law enforcement. Still, you do have the advantage of attracting a lot of jobs there because of the low taxes as well.
A lot of the higher tax states have better quality education, law enforcement, and social systems, but they have the burden of scaring away a lot of business. Finding work in those states tends to be a little harder. The cost of living is usually higher as well.
It's a difficult balance to attain. North Carolina tends to err more on the side of low taxes, so we have a low cost of living, finding work is relatively easy, but our social systems are somewhat lacking, as is our education in certain areas.
