Fine by me- my state grows its own food (both meat and vegetables), exports plenty, and is sparsely populated. I reckon we'd be fine.

True to the OP's point: I don't really care what happens to the east/west coasts. These people have been trying to legislate my rights away for decades now, so I am very apathetic to their plights.

I understand the sentiment and I hear your statement but all of us trade with those "other" places (the "east/west coasts") and most of us have friends in those places, too. You know too that, in your heart of hearts, your very humanity would pull you to help were something catastrophic to happen to those places.

We're all in the same boat and we have learned the value of rowing together versus throwing others overboard. If that means sometimes you eat crow and other times you serve it up, so be it. I too wish there were more on the menu than crow, but that's why we have scientists: perhaps our grandchildren can eat lobster.

I fail to see how we couldn't continue to trade with the overreach of the federal government eliminated- why couldn't the midwest region still sell beef to the coastal regions?

We've all been duped into believing we need a federal government to maintain what we have, and I very strongly believe we do not.

Shit, I would wager that whatever 'economic' distress balkanization would cause could quickly be recouped by the simple fact that we no longer have the feds taking 15-30% of our paychecks and then sending it over seas to eastern europe or israel.

You seem to believe that if the federal government disappears then no other entity will take it's place. This is incorrect.

Even balkanized countries have levels of governments. In the scenario you envision, the role of the federal government would pass to some other new entity and you'd still be paying taxes or worse.

Reason is, if you don't have some government then you cannot protect your property and yourself simultaneously. A local warlord or landowner or one from an adjacent state might take your land. A neighboring state might invade your state. Who would protect you? What rights would you have? What court system would you use to gain redress?

Without that federal government, most of the black folks in the US might still be slaves. We probably shouldn’t forget all the history that got us to where we are today.