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The primary issue with state power is human rights. If you don't guarantee certain rights, some other state will gladly exploit its citizens.

The neverending struggle of course is what does one consider a human right.

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If a few states work together to make interstate relocation easier, then this should be a self-correcting problem over time. As you mentioned, there is no universal agreement on human rights—the constitution enumerates some basic ones, but there is wide disagreement in interpretation even within these. If we want to avoid a constantly escalating national tug-of-war (inevitably leading IMHO to armed conflict) then local laws should be devolved to the states, with the federal government acting as referee between states and as a neutral anti-corruption enforcer.

I don’t see how we get there, though. I think we may already be too far down the road of centralized power, which is likely to have very bad results for everyone in the end.

The same can be said about the federal level, no matter which level you are at they can happily exploit you, but it is much easier to leave a smaller place than a larger one, so its very preferable to have these decisions at state level than federal level.

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