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Re:United States loses AAA credit rating from S&P by georgefox on Saturday August 06, 2011 @06:20PM (#2855069)
If the discrepancies between state policies were large enough, I imagine you'd basically see white flight on a national scale. Essentially, supporting any type of social safety net would be optional for the people with the resources to move out of state. As a result, middle-class and wealthy people would flock to low-tax states without expensive social programs, leaving behind a higher concentration of needy people in the states with the stronger safety nets. What social programs remain would presumably go bankrupt while the nation's wealthiest individuals basked in the glory of their virtually tax-free lifestyles.
Re:United States loses AAA credit rating from S&P by wmoxam on Tuesday August 09, 2011 @10:24AM (#2864113)
That is largely not the case with your neighbors to the north. In Canada only 1/3 of taxes are collected at the federal level, and some of that money is distributed to the provinces to spend (poorer provinces get a larger proportion of payments so they can provide similar services as richer provinces).

While there is some migration to the richest province, that has more to do with jobs related to the oil boom there, and the low taxes there are due to oil revenues.