from Tatler
What is the meaning of blue states vs. red states? As this article in Fortune indicates, there is a strong correlation between the red & blue electoral map and the fiscal map showing the federal gravy train. Citizens of some states pay more in taxes than they receive back from the federal government through grants, benefits, and subsidies. The imbalance for California, for example, reached $50 billion in 2003. New York and Illinois are other "donor" states. Alabama is the biggest "winning" state, reaping in a net of $100 billion between 1991 and 2001. The "winner" states during the same period received nearly $1 trillion more in federal benefits than they paid in taxes. "The huge gaps are driven by higher average incomes in the "donor" states, plus subsidies for farms, oil, mining --- "extractive" industries that skew red....The heist is more impressive considering that the winners have only a third of the U.S. population."
2 comments:
Having grown up in a liberal city on the west coast, I was always astounded when the people who lived east of the mountains--big-time farmers, ranchers, and orchard owners, would complain about having to pay taxes to support "our" ferries, which were a main form of transportation connecting the small, populated islands. These were people who leased land from the federal government for pennies an acre in order to feed their cattle, had reaped the benefit of enormous dam projects that provided their arid land with irrigation, and had major federal and state highway projects connecting them to their neighbors.
Complaining about the federal government is, I think, another way that race and class still plays a factor in our culture. It's okay if the federal government wants to build something that's going to make my life easier, but if I think my tax dollars are going to support some unwed mother or pay for some job-training program, well that's welfare. You receive welfare; I get necessary public works projects.
I still think the red blue thing has a lot to do with population density. It's hard to argue that the maps look red, and yet it was almost a 50-50 split.
Oops, Mom just reminded me that I have a luncheon appointment tomorrow. Yikes! Bye, guys!!!
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