- Arends doesn't mention the biggest "red" state of them all, nor does he mention the fact that this "red" state is a net donor.
- Arends doesn't mention the fact that the big "blue" states are losing population hand-over-fist. (1)(2)(3)
- Arends repeats the tired canard that "red" states are propping up "blue" states.
- Arends makes the absurd claim that "red" states are growing faster than "blue" states (?!!), but doesn't want to discuss current economic trends, which show a collapse in the big "blue" states economies. These economies consisted of finance, insurance and real estate (FIRE). With real estate and stupid lending companies dead, so is much of California. With the Wall Street shysters down (but regaining their feet), New York is toast. Much of the "blue" state economy was a chimera based on fraud and deceit.
New York has always been messed up. California? What happened to you? You used to be the shining hill. Now you're the whining bankrupt schmuck who's desperate for a bailout from Mom and Dad after your get-rich-quick scheme failed.
Update: The Malthusian AHansen proposes a solution. She's all over the place, but it seems that she wants to ship retired state workers to Baja, declare bankruptcy and then split the state into wealthy coastal areas/Central Valley and everything else. So one state will get all the tech and all the agriculture, the other state gets Death Valley. Here's my idea: shrink state government.Bump. A reader about my mortgage interest subsidy comment: "Lou this is not accurate, a guy in California who makes 50k a year can only optimistically qualify for a home loan of 150k-200k depending on debt load maybe less."
If this was true, we wouldn't see $600,000 40-year-old tiny tract houses in Garden Grove. It doesn't look like a house a wealthy person would want to live in, does it? In fact, it looks like a house a family with a 50k household income would live in.
But assuming the reader's comment is accurate, it doesn't change the fact that people who buy expensive houses receive fat subsidies from those of us in flyover country. Not to mention from renters.
14 comments:
I read that column and was a little puzzled by it. The tone seemed really huffy and hurried, like the writer just had to get it off his chest. A column that started off as a compromise way to get socialized healthcare implemented ends as a red state bashing rant. I guess he's upset that he's not going to get fully socialized healthcare even with Obama in power?
Here in Masshole land the politicians are pulling out all the stops to avoid losing a Congressional seat after the 2010 Census. They're even begging college students from out of state to list their residence as Massachusetts (they will not however allow them to pay in-state tuition rates). I guess losing a Congressional seat would be too much to take, especially after the demise of Ted Kennedy and the outsized influence he brought to MA.
Now you're the whining bankrupt schmuck who's desperate for a bailout from Mom and Dad after your get-rich-quick scheme failed.
Ouch!
I read that column and was a little puzzled by it. The tone seemed really huffy and hurried, like the writer just had to get it off his chest.
The word that came to my mind was "petulant." It reads like something an unpaid blogger (raises hand) would write, not something a professional journalist would write.
The average age of a Massachusetts resident is getting older. The population is declining,compared to the growth rate in the US. That is why we are losing a Congressional seat.
So, in Massachusetts you have a increasing trend of older people, young illegals with poor education and incomes that are supposed to in the future pay ever higher taxes to support older people, and of course a mountain of state and local worker pensions and debts.
Yeah. That'll work.
Productive, yet despised working people and small businessman are FLEEING the state.
Heck, even Rush left New York City.
I really think the blue states are being mob like busted out by the Democrats and state workers, firemen, cops, teachers.
When done, they'll move to the red states and do it there until the entire country is busted out.
All I can say, Paul, is that I've got one foot out the door!
you can't shrink government!
If you shrink state government, who will be left to ban large-screen TVs?
Won't somebody please think of the children?!?!?
California is six red states and two blue states. The red are contributors, the blue are such massive suckholes they overwhelm the red.
Speaking of supermassive suckholes...
The takovers continue: El Generalisimo Hugo Chavez takes over a Hilton Hotel.
I've done the purple state (maine) to blue state (mass) to red state (Indiana) trek. I'll take my red state years over the others. Indy has lower taxes but 'worse' services whatever that means to a non-welfare recipient. Mass is a dying state, but not nearly as dead or as poor as Maine. Maine is the oldest state in the union but the only jobs are tourism and taking care of the elderly.
Indiana is also full of hicks. I'm willing to pay a significant mob tax to keep that invisible line separating them from me. And surely vice-versa.
People are people, they suck everywhere. To paraphrase Balzac, the people in Red States are no worse than anyone else. No better, either.
I thought Maine was the toothpick capital of the world?
The biggest problem is that the majority of the economy is finance, insurance and real estate (construction), and service related because we dont make anything here anymore, and unlike other countries we dont do anything to protect our workforce. We allow lobbyists for multinationals to payoff congress to create one way free trade agreements where other countries get to dump everything under the sun into our economy. And they buy relatively bupkis from us. Then they take their dollars and buy up american companies and real estate because thats where those dollars go farthest. And slowly we globalize the labor pool driving down the pay of average american workers who try to compensate over the past 20 years by living off credit to make up for the lack of pay increases they havent had to keep up with the inflation that doesnt exist. Now that the american wealth has been largely successfully redistributed upward to a small percentage of the population, out of the hands of potential product buying masses, these corporations will now be moving on the greener pastures in emerging markets.
The guy in California gets massive subsidies for his overpriced house that the guy in Georgia has to pay for.
Lou this is not accurate, a guy in california who makes 50k a year can only optimistically qualify for a home loan of 150k-200k depending on debt load maybe less. And therefore probably cant buy a house in most markets in california. Most people in california are renters and therefore receive no tax break. Homeownership is currently less than 50%.
re: mortgage subsidy
I don't see that this is a directly obvious conclusion.
Generally, as just stated, most people in a 500k house make six figures with a dual income. But more to my point, the savings on your federal taxes are about the same as the huge property tax bill that goes to the state. Thus, this is really a shift of revenue from the Feds to the state. Since CA is a net payer to the Federal government I do not see an issue.
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