I never took the “buy Greenland” stuff seriously. Yet Trump may have been more earnest than most people think. After tweeting about the possibility in 2019 and being rebuffed by the Danish Prime Minister, he took the step of abruptly cancelling a planned trip to Copenhagen. Trump has recently reiterated his wish to buy the territory, and Don Jr. just made a surprise trip there this week.

The more I think about it, the more I believe that this should be a major priority of the Trump administration and that it’s not exactly impossible. My estimation of this eventually happening has gone from under 1% to maybe 2%, over say a thirty-year time horizon. But that crosses the threshold to be high enough for the possibility to be worth considering as a thought experiment. And at this rate of increase it’ll be a sure thing by next month anyway.

Denmark gained control over Greenland in the early eighteenth century when missionaries and traders from Denmark-Norway established a presence on the island, seeking to convert the Inuit population to Christianity and integrate the territory into their trade network. It eventually officially became a Danish colony in 1814 after the dissolution of the Danish-Norwegian union at the end of the Napoleonic Wars. In 1979, Greenland was granted home rule, and in 2009, it gained greater autonomy while remaining part of the Kingdom of Denmark, with control over most internal affairs but relying on Denmark for defense and foreign policy.

Greenland is a sparsely populated land with about 57,000 people. About 10% are Europeans and the rest are natives. Its GDP per capita is $57,000 per year, which is not bad at all by global standards but significantly worse off than the rest of Denmark. Yet its standard of living is highly subsidized. Approximately 20% of Greenland’s GDP, or half of its government budget, comes from the Danish government. The territory has been said to be on a slow roll towards independence, but it’s hard to imagine what that would look like given its complete economic reliance on the home country.

The small population is due in part to its unforgiving geography. About 80% of Greenland is covered by a literal block of ice called the Greenland Ice Sheet, which is 1.7 million square miles, and over two miles deep at its thickest points.

Greenlanders don’t appear particularly attached to Denmark to begin with, with the Prime Minister of the territory recently declaring that they should form their own nation, and polls showing majority support for that position. However, they seem to be a practical people. In 2017, 78% of Greenlanders said they would oppose independence if it meant a fall in living standards. So they want to be their own country, but not the responsibilities that would entail. In the end, being part of the United States, the most powerful empire in the history of the world where all races are equally welcome, may start to look like a much more enticing prospect than being ruled as a welfare dependent of a tiny and not particularly distinguished European country. Greenlanders seem pretty lethargic and easily malleable, desiring independence but not enough to want to do much to gain it, and becoming Americans could perhaps provide some excitement to what seem like very boring lives.

I have to say that emotionally, I like the idea. Americans are living well but pessimistic about their politics. The things that voters care about are mostly silly. Immigrants do not commit much crime and are not reducing your standard of living, but improving it. When Kamala pivoted away from wokeness, she had no message other than being nice to people and reducing the price of insulin. This is more sympathetic than Republicans’ hate filled politics, but too small to inspire anyone.

If America has problems, it is still morally and culturally superior to the rest of the world. Its destiny is to dissolve borders and distinct cultures, which are annoying and stupid. We do this by welcoming the world here and making it more like us abroad. Most of this is done without any planning. American pop culture and economic dynamism are magnets for Elite Human Capital all over the world, whether they move here or stay home and simply find our society much more exciting than their own.

There is bound to be a great deal of heartache and destruction in the process. But there is no such thing as the preservation of cultures or nations in the modern world. It’s like a person who gives up on self-improvement and decides he’s going to do whatever it takes to keep his life just as it is now. This is impossible to do and still maintain the kind of existence that makes one human. You grow older, people in your life die, new opportunities arise that must be seized if you are to maintain any will to live at all. If you do sink into the same routine, the result will be ...

Should America Buy Greenland?

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