Our Future Is Now! - #NationalDivorce
The Economy of a Federation of Red-States would do Just Fine
The Economy of a Federation of Red-States would do Just Fine
Online you’ll come across people linking to studies showing that blue counties and blue states have a higher per capita GDP than others.
The per capita GDP of cities is artificially high because people commute to work there from outside the city limits, and from outside the county limits. Some cities, such as Chicago, get commuters from red states each morning. The productivity of these commuters is counted in the location they work in, not the location they live in.
UPDATE: The US government’s BEA calculates “Real per capita personal income,” which is each state’s per capita personal income adjusted for each state’s cost of living. In 2022, blue states only had 9% higher real income than red states. And the lower incomes mean they pay less income tax, so it’s not surprising that red states pay less to the feds than they get back. And the lower federal (and state) taxes is another reason the standard of living in red states is almost as good as in blue states.
If you adjust GDP per capita by the cost of living, Trump states do better than Hillary states. Example Here. The reason GDP is more impressive in red states than income is: GDP in a red state is not necessarily income for a red stater, since some…