Spread the Wealth (and Smile When You Say That)

When pols talk about spreading the wealth, and what a sin it is, somehow they never get around to talking about how the government itself is one big wealth redistribution machine. On a macro level, the relationship between what states pay in taxes and what they get back is often unequal. If this is a bad thing, then on behalf of New Jersey I would like to ask Montana, New Mexico, and North and South Dakota for a refund. Oh, and Alaska too.

And if you really want to be fair about it, in addition to giving us and states like us a bigger piece of the pie, you would throw in a geographic cost of living adjustment for all taxpayers.

Share/Save/Bookmark

3 Responses to “Spread the Wealth (and Smile When You Say That)”

  1. Rob in CT Says:

    Damn skippy. We here in CT are subsidizing a bunch of red states. They don’t appear to be eager to give us our money back…

  2. Mike K Says:

    Steven, I’m on your side but I’m not sure you’re correct to say that the disparity between the states’ balances equates to the gov’t being a “wealth redistribution machine.” *I* think it *should* be such a machine, incidentally. But if you follow that first link, you’ll see the author writes: “The most important factor determining whether a state is a net beneficiary is per capita income. States with wealthier residents pay higher federal taxes per capita thanks to the progressive structure of the income tax.” So McCain attacking a more progressive tax structure is the same as attacking this disparity.

    Now, when you get into, say, Dept of Homeland Security(http://www.safenow.org/ :) ) spending, it’s a whole other outrage.

  3. jcs5872 Says:

    not particularly relevant to this particular post, but if you have time check out the blog post “before and after” at crookedtimber.org It updates the famous “What’s Up?” Budweiser adds from 8 years ago. If you haven’t seen this yet it is pretty good.
    -js

Leave a Reply