>> Every research paper I've ever read shows that the more education a person has the more money they will make and the more productive they will be
There is a very strong, almost linear, correlation between mean years of education and GDP per capita. Nothing surprising about that.
>> The terrible irony is that the people that elected Trump, the poorest people in the country, are also the ones that use Obama care, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, food stamps and welfare the most.
It should not be surprising that the wealthy need those services less than the poor do. Still, your claim doesn't hold water. Here is Medicaid expenditures per capita by state:
As you can readily see, poor states like AL and OK do far better than CA or NY. Even Arkansas and Alaska outperform CA, NY, MN, PA, NY and much of the rest of the NE.
I don't know what "research" you're reading, but it clearly doesn't provide you with a clear picture (keep in mind that these southern states generally have little to offer in terms of rent subsidies, child care, etc., so in these states that consumer government services there is far more to the story.
Perhaps you're talking about the portion of the federal revenue states "get back", but these metrics are senseless at this point, there is no standard, and it makes it impossible to compare. For example, what you're reading about -- does it consider money spent on military bases as payments back to the state or not? What about payments to particular contractors (e.g., Boeing, G-D, etc.).
The reality is that many wealthy states get vast sums from federal taxpayers, from state/local taxes, and from commerce -- and they still cannot make ends meet. This is why we have cities like Detroit, Chicago, NYC, San Jose, and several others in CA, in very deep fiscal shit. They simply cannot pay their bills even with far higher taxation than other states.
Texas and Fla don't even have state income taxes. Even most corporations don't pay income taxes in Texas (don't remember about FLA). The point is that these comparisons you're making are things you can't really compare. |
