I'd like to see this chart broken down by county. Or hell...lets do it by race and see where all those welfare benefits are going. How much you want to bet in those red states, it's blue voters getting the welfare?
Have heard this one before as well www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2014/jul/29/facebook-posts/are-97-nations-100-poorest-counties-red-states/
Despite farm subsidies being associated with red states; most of the farm subsidy money goes to blue states where corporations own large corporate farms spread across the country. Comparatively little crop subsidy money goes to family farmers who actually reside in red states and own farms.
Once again, let's look at the truth about Blue and Red states... The concept that 'red' states are the 'moochers' is absurd. Let's eliminate military base spending, farm subsidies, and other non-welfare federal spending from the accounting. The red states do not really want the military bases that were forced on them. These bases take up large tracts of land that are useful for other economic purposes and require local money spent on policing & other services because they tend to be high crime / low income areas. Let's put a large military base in NYC or Boston - and bulldoze all the existing homes. The displaced residents can survive on the 80%+ of large farm subsidies that are sent to the owners of corporate farms who reside in blue states (but is seen as red state money for some reason). Let's focus on federal welfare spending--defined here as childhood nutrition programs, food stamp programs, WIC benefits TANF benefits, and other similar benefits. This article from USA Today "New Yorkers lead pack in government benefits" compiled data showing which states had the highest per capita expenditures for every type of government-provided benefit and blue states top the list and red states made up most of the bottom 10. Top 10 - Most dependent on government aid 1 New York 2 West Virginia 3 Rhode Island 4 Maine 5 Pennsylvania 6 Massachusetts 7 Vermont 8 Kentucky 9 Michigan 10 Connecticut Bottom 10 - Least dependent on government aid 41 South Dakota 42 Nebraska 43 Wyoming 44 Idaho 45 Georgia 46 Texas 47 Nevada 48 Virginia 49 Colorado 50 Utah
It is kind of a hopeless thing, if we accepted that do the corporations pay tax or are they subsidised to benefit another? What about military? The US military is in large part a giant federal make-work & social welfare wing. Some states benefit disproportionately per capita. How are swing states factored? One thing we can agree on is Delaware is getting away with blue murder. My assistant pointed out to me just now that the federal government owns nearly half of the western states. Does this sacrifice cost them unfairly in production? Quite surprising actually: http://bigthink.com/strange-maps/291-federal-lands-in-the-us All I know is nobody brought me any Canada Dry Tahitian Treat yet again this (alleged) Thanksgiving.
So i looked at those "top 10" counties and their COMBINED population is about 100k people total. Some of the counties were 80%+ democrat, but like I said...it's still a significantly low population in all those counties so of course smaller towns have lower income. In fact, there are more people on welfare in detroit than the total number of people in the top 10 on that list combined. Maybe even the top 100.
But they do. Blue states have higher state taxes because they get less of their tax money back from the feds.
So now you are switching to the total numbers argument, can you stick to one? Why did you look at just top 10 counties, it lists 97 counties in total that are red. There are more people in Los Angeles county than 45+ states, that's why we talk in terms of percentages. If red counties and states are so great with their fiscal management, why do their finances and living conditions suck so much.