degsme
Council Member
Much has been made about the importance of personal responsibility, pulling ones own weight and contributing to the well being of the nation. Even Rick Santorum says this in his stump speaches. So I'm asking conservatives then how they explain the following data. And tis is data from CONSERVATIVE sources like the Tax Foundation or from neutral sources like the US Census
So these are states that have had long term governance by conservative policies.
1) why are they doing so poorly if they are examples of more ideal governance?
2) looking ath these poor results, why would anyone propose them for the nation as a whole?
- All but 3 "red States" collect dramatically more in Federal Subsidies than they pay back in Federal taxes. Often thse subsidies exceed the local state's own tax based budget by 200% http://taxfoundation.org/research/show/22685.html
- Red States have the highest percentage of tax payers that get 100% or highr refunds on their taxes - ie the one's conservatives call "parasites" http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/26337.html
- Red States have the lowest Per Capita GDP productivity with only 8 red states making it above the median and only three making it into the top 10 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_GDP_per_capita_(nominal) REmember this is PER CAPITA, not per state if you look at per state, only 8 red states make it above median.
- The per capita graning of patents - which is a measure of academic achievement as well as investment in the future economy only ONE red state makes it into the top 10 and that's because f the Goverhment lab there (NREL) http://www.statemaster.com/graph/gov_pat_iss_percap-government-patents-issued-per-capita
- on healthcare indexes, despite fewer inner urban centers, Red States Aerage WORSE than Blue states http://statesnapshots.ahrq.gov/snaps08/allStatesallMeasures.jsp?menuId=53&state=
- School Dropout rates are worse in Red states http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d10/tables/dt10_113.asp
So these are states that have had long term governance by conservative policies.
1) why are they doing so poorly if they are examples of more ideal governance?
2) looking ath these poor results, why would anyone propose them for the nation as a whole?