Sure real people live there, and selling it to the US wouldn’t change that. Real people live in many US territories. Life for a resident probably wouldn't change all that much under US rule.
It’s a huge amount of land, but most of it is covered in kilometer-thick glaciers. It’s not really all that usable; plus its strategic location in the North Atlantic shipping lanes makes it a liability in the event of war. Even if the US and Denmark have a falling out, an aggressive American military would likely make Greenland its first target.
In any case, the US gets what it wants for free; the Danes seem happy with the current arrangement, so it’s water under the bridge. This is a pretty convincing pragmatic argument, but pragmatism goes out the window when national pride is involved.
It’s a huge amount of land, but most of it is covered in kilometer-thick glaciers. It’s not really all that usable; plus its strategic location in the North Atlantic shipping lanes makes it a liability in the event of war. Even if the US and Denmark have a falling out, an aggressive American military would likely make Greenland its first target.
In any case, the US gets what it wants for free; the Danes seem happy with the current arrangement, so it’s water under the bridge. This is a pretty convincing pragmatic argument, but pragmatism goes out the window when national pride is involved.