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wedrifid comments on Comparative and absolute advantage in AI - Less Wrong Discussion
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Almost certainly. And even neglecting any direct resource extraction, by my estimation it was worthwhile colonizing simply so that the USA exists. The UK benefits from gains from trade with the US and it is almost certainly better both politically and economically to have the country based on British heritage rather than whatever the alternative would have been.
It seems rather likely that the did. National identity and formally acknowledged power tends to be important to the people with power then.
Only a little less. The dilution from immigration and the excessive amounts of slave importing makes some difference. The symbology of the rebellion also seems like the kind of thing that matters a bit since it involves a greater degree of change to the cultural legacy. Even so the connection is still rather strong and certainly comparable. It remains a "fork".
My understanding of economic history is that the Marxist/Leninist interpretation of empire as profitable remains controversial and that a great many believe empire is better interpreted as related to national prestige and private interests engaged in rentseeking/'privatizing gains and socializing losses', and that it's questionable that England did receive in excess profits (above and beyond what it would have received from free trade) anywhere near what it spent on things like the British Navy or the French and Indian War (with Jacques Marseille arguing the same thing about the French empire).