For All of Their "Economic" B.S., Where Do "Conservative" States Rank?

[Cary]

Dead last. The red states are the least productive and yet they want to tell us what to do? At the bottom, Mississippi $28,944. For all of their railing against Illinois, we are at number 16 with $46,151. Alaska does well at number 2, with $61,156 but chalk that up to a small population and a lot of oil.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_GDP_per_capita

Why do red states have so much power? Something is seriously wrong about that. And why do we let them drag us down with b.s. like their idiotic "right to work" nonsense? These states are dirt poor. Their education systems suck. Why emulate them?

[cilla4progress]

1. Just saw some good info

comparing Scott Walker's WI economy, with neighbor MN, whose governor, Mark Dayton, it turns out is i the "Democrat-Labor-Farmer" party. (Guess which state's is better. Yah...).

[KansDem]

2. self-deleted

[yeoman6987]

3. I wonder about state debt. That would be interesting to compare too.

[Cary]

4. Why?

"Conservatives" rail on and on about debt but if you ask them why they have no good answers. Sure, being less in debt sounds good but you need a little more than good sounding bumper sticker slogans. At least I do.

State debt will have to be repaid. That's true enough. But isn't quality of life what really matters?

[yeoman6987]

5. It gives the full picture of state health.

I am sure red states are riddled with big debt which would add to the blue state being better.

[Cary]

6. I disagree

Especially right now, where the interest rate is so low. If you have a state with no debt but a horrible education system and poor income prospects for residents you are going to have a hard time with tax revenues (unless you're Alaska with oil revenue or Florida with tourism). By contrast if you have a strong, diversified, dynamic economy investing in your residents makes a lot of business sense.

In fact the willingness to take on debt shows confidence.

But if the state goes bust, what's anyone going to do about it?

[former9thward]

7. Tell that to Illinois which has the worst rating in country for debt.

"But if the state goes bust, what's anyone going to do about it?" A couple things. People will not loan the state anymore money and things like pensions will not be paid. You up for that?

[Cary]

9. How do you know what would happen?

And why on earth would you turn this at me? I didn't underfund the pensions. That wasn't done by either party, it was done by everyone here in Illinois. We have had a low income tax. They robbed Peter to pay Paul.

Sheesh.

[former9thward]

11. You asked a question.

I gave an educated guess. States can't print money. It has to come from somewhere.

[Cary]

14. States still have sovereign immunity

And they still need to exist, going forward.

I'm not in favor of running up debt. I'm just really not in favor of "conservative" stupidity.

[former9thward]

8. Well the list is right here.

Pretty much all the states with the least debt per capita are red states.

http://www.statista.com/statistics/246333/state-debt-per-capita-in-the-united-states/

[Cary]

10. So you like the red state model.

I see.

[former9thward]

12. I posted the graph the poster asked about.

Nothing to do with what I like or not. Got some different facts? Post them.

[Cary]

13. Yes, and jumped on me because ...

why?