Looks like this time we won't have to secede

For the second time in as many days, I just read an article making the case for Northern secession from the union. This particular article was located at slate.msn.com

In this article, as well as the previous article, the author made the point that the south is a net recipient of federal money where the north (and coastal west) is a net donor. I think that one of the main points that both authors missed is that the money the federal government is sending south is not stuffed into burlap bags and handled out to us po' confederates at train stations and post offices. Most of that money comes in the form of federal programs that don't improve our life at all. On the contrary, it enables and empowers meddling bureaucrats to find more and more ways to try to control our lives.

If the south is a problem to the north, they have no one to blame but themselves. The original 19th century secession would have gone off peaceably had not Mr. Lincoln decided to invade the south to try and maintain the influx of tariff money. As for this story of the invasion being necessary to free the slaves, slavery would have ended without the war, just as it did in virtually every other civilized nation in the world.

My thought is let them secede. I would rather be poor and free than under the control of some bureaucrat on the federal governments payroll.