NY and CA spend billions more in taxes than TX and FL — and get worse results

[CF DolFan]

I'm sure this will spark some enlightening discussion. Who'd have thought higher taxes do not equate to a better environment?

Our big four states provide a good test case for two very different visions: Do higher taxes and bigger government actually deliver better outcomes, particularly in terms of education, poverty alleviation, and infrastructure? Or can simpler governments and lower taxes actually raise the fortunes of their citizens?

https://nypost.com/2020/02/01/ny-and-ca-spend-billions-more-in-taxes-than-tx-and-fl-and-get-worse-results/

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Breaking news a anti-tax small government political organization published a report that spend money is bad by cherry picking 8% of the states and specific data points to generalize.

[Dave Gray]

It's probably dependent on a ton of factors.  I have a feeling that data like this is correlative, and not necessarily causative.  The needs and infrastructure of New York and Los Angeles are so vastly different from anywhere in, say....Kentucky.  There are going to be higher incidents of poverty and crime in massive population centers, in general.

Not that I'm saying higher taxes are better...just that I don't think you can look at this singular data point.

[Tenshot13]

It's comparing the 4 largest states, it's like y'all didn't even read the article.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Read the article.  Understand what the did too. They ran all the variations of the data, big states, small states, east states, west states, democrat vs republicans, various different measures of education spending and poverty spending and various measures of measuring positive and negative results and pick the ones that supported their argument.  That is why they picked those specific measures and only did 4 states rather than entire county.

[Tenshot13]

Read the article.  Understand what the did too. They ran all the variations of the data, big states, small states, east states, west states, democrat vs republicans, various different measures of education spending and poverty spending and various measures of measuring positive and negative results and pick the ones that supported their argument.  That is why they picked those specific measures and only did 4 states rather than entire county.

Or they just picked the 4 largest states...seems simple enough to me, and didn't have to get all wordy to explain it away.

[CF DolFan]

So Hoodie your argument is they cherry picked the states even though its the 4 largest states? Even you had to be thinking there is no way in hell they are gonna buy this but I'm going to say it anyway.

[Spider-Dan]

It's kind of strange to talk about "bang for the buck" without mentioning which states are sucking at the teat of Uncle Sam.



If your state is red, your taxpayers give more to the federal government than they receive.  If it's green, the opposite.

So CA is pretty light green; not perfect, but not bad, hovering right around break-even.  Those rugged individualists over in TX are much greener though... sad to see their "low taxes" are being subsidized by more responsible taxpayers in other states.  Say, what's that bright green blob in the lower right?  It appears to be the fine people of the state of FL, leeching off of hard-working blue-staters.  And we certainly can't ignore that dark crimson state in the upper right, where the loyal patriots of NY are unfortunately getting a poor return on their tax dollars due to all the deadbeat "low tax" states.

In fact, if one were to look at most of the red and light green states, one might tend to see a pattern developing with regards to their politics...

Note: this chart is from 2016, prior to the 2017 Trump Tax Cuts which punish high-tax blue states even more.  I imagine a current chart will show an even wider gap between the makers and takers.

[dolphins4life]

It also depends on people willing to work.

Many people just like to be lazy and collect checks

I am on vacation now, and it makes me angry that some people get to be on vacation all their lives by collecting disability.

[Pappy13]

I remember reading something very similar not that long ago that provided data and the conclusion was just the opposite. I'll have to see if I can find the link.

https://www.epi.org/publication/as-wisconsins-and-minnesotas-lawmakers-took-divergent-paths-so-did-their-economies-since-2010-minnesotas-economy-has-performed-far-better-for-working-families-than-wisconsin/

[Sunstroke]

General entry into the conversation here:

To bastardize Andrew Lang... We shouldn't use statistics as a drunk uses a lamppost...for support, rather than illumination.