> The Rockefeller Institute data (https://rockinst.org/issue-areas/fiscal-analysis/balance-of-...) shows that it's not so much "blue states" as frequently claimed, but taxpayers of four very wealthy Northeast states (the Tri-State area plus Massachusetts) that account for the vast bulk of citizens paying more than they receive from the federal government.
Yeaaah… no. It only shows that under the default of 2018 BOP.
If you select the last primary tab and look at the 4 years tally, you will see a picture rather more inline with the "folk knowledge", including that while Californians have had a BOP just shy of positive from 2017, their negative BOP in 2015 and 2016 puts them rather into the negative for the 4 years period. Less so than the tri-state or Colorado, but the picture you're painting is at best misleading.
Re:Arecibo Observatory Collapsed
by VikingCoder on Tuesday December 01, 2020 @01:53PM
(#25268456)
Yes, thank you for explicitly phrasing the problem the way I should have.
Cato has different numbers than Rockefeller.
https://www.cato.org/blog/winner-loser-states-centralized-go...
I've lived in multiple blue states, and they're all "losers" by this definition.
Re:Arecibo Observatory Collapsed
by URSpider94 on Wednesday December 02, 2020 @12:30PM
(#25278804)
Note also that VA and MD are in this category for very different reasons than KY, AL and WV. Virginia and Maryland are extensions of the Washington, DC government complex (the Pentagon is in Virginia). A large portion of the Federal spending that goes to these states is direct expenditure (salaries, rents, purchasing) for goods and services, while for WV it's much more biased towards entitlement spending (social security, disability, Medicaid, Medicare).
The Rockefeller Institute data (https://rockinst.org/issue-areas/fiscal-analysis/balance-of-...) shows that it's not so much "blue states" as frequently claimed, but taxpayers of four very wealthy Northeast states (the Tri-State area plus Massachusetts) that account for the vast bulk of citizens paying more than they receive from the federal government. After them come CO, NE, UT, and MN, of which half voted for Hillary/Biden and half for Trump. All other states, including CA, are net beneficiaries of the taxpayers in the top eight (and, again, really, it's the top four).
The 10 states at the bottom of the Rockefeller report's per capita list—that is, the states that benefit from the most federal spending per person compared to how much each person pays in federal taxes—are
Hillary/Biden-voting states: VA, NM, MD, HI, 1/2 of ME
Trump-voting states: KY, AK, AL, WV, MS, 1/2 of ME