by Erik Setser

Created on: March 24, 2009

Images of Alaska often have it appear disconnected from the rest of the nation, as though it is a nation entirely unto itself. New Canada, perhaps. It's cut out from the rest of us, both physically and figuratively. It's climate is unlike even those of Washington and Maine, their weather seeming almost tropical in comparison. This, of course, has made for notable cultural differences. In addition, the combination of wildlife reserves and Native American land rights has left its country side among the most undisturbed settled regions in our nation.

One of the best-paying, albeit most dangerous, jobs in the America is available there. Yes, I speak of king crab fishing. A person could top the average American's annual income with just a couple of weeks of hard treacherous labor. Also, the mass oil reserves would make it quite easy for it to support itself, now that the pipelines have been laid. The job market, the domestic oil, even the scenery and the seafood, all great reasons to head up there even if it requires a passport and citizenship forms.

However, segregated from the rest of America, Alaska would not be quite so great as it seems. We have an ever-growing dependency both on their oil and, for many the connoisseur, their crab. Conversely, they too have a need for these dependencies. America is their largest market for both of their big ticket would-be exports, and we could quite easily make ourselves the only customer.

After the recent bailout distribution, any well-being and financial improvement to the Alaskan condition is the doing of the federal government. The pipeline, too, was built with federal funds, as it was intended to break our dependency on foreign oil, thus keeping money within our borders and creating several thousand new jobs. Because of this, for Alaska's ability to harvest the oil, they would be legally indebted to the American federal government. As such, they could be contractually bound to export the oil only to America at minimal markup from the local price.

As for the remainder of their debt, exporting crab seems the best way to go about this. But economic complications could make this difficult for any number of reasons. The industry has been on the decline for a variety of reasons, but if it were to find new life, this could be accredited to federal assistance from the 2009 bailout. Again, as such, contracts may bind them, in this instance to a record low price per pound. They may try to use America's love of Alaskan crab to raise the price, in a simple analysis of supply and demand. That being, they have all the supply for our demand. However, their demand for our supply of business, in order to pay off their debt to us, would easily outweigh the aforementioned. Additionally, few if any other nations would be willing to pay much more than what they charge us, beyond additional transport expenses, regardless of the reason for our discount.

Thus, in summation, Alaska's disbanding from the United States would surely spell disaster for them. Through no convolusions in vindiction, spinning of words or manipulation of legalities, they would be tethered to America for several generations to come. Needing us to break away from us and stuck with their own bill when financial disaster strikes again as it is inevitably wont to do.

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