Which US State Is the Biggest Federal Mooch?

LOL Reminds me of a German work friend who was working in our factory for a while. One day the topic strayed onto politics. He said, "You MUST explain about the ghettos..." I told him I don't have to explain anything. In his case I'm sure it was just a language or cultural issue. His speaking that way was not a matter of intended rudeness.

What's your excuse?

I'm not sure what you are going on about. Poverty is much better than it used to be. We have given opportunity for many to escape and they have. The fact that there are still people in poverty, notwithstanding that poverty is not what it used to be, does not mean the money was wasted.

If you have a cold and take a cold pill for it and you aren't cured, does that mean the cold pill was worthless?

I don't know why, but you are not looking at this rationally.

I'll pass. BS as I thought.

There is some total BS. The only real difference in cost of living in most areas is housing. Comparing the cost of a home in the sticks in Alabama to the cost of a downtown condo in NY is more BS. There are affordable housing in the state of NY if you aren't in the congested areas. Yes, the floor may be cheaper in Alabama than in most of NY, but the difference is not so huge.

Then there is the rest of your living costs. I pay the same price for gas, milk and a newspaper in Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia even though property values can vary by a factor of two or more. A car costs the same everywhere other than the options you select. Your clothes cost the same if you buy at the same chain store.

I have seen with my own eyes that when people are squeezed, they move to states with lower costs of living. So yes, there is a real difference in income levels. Higher income earners don't bother moving to find a cheaper house.

Total BS in comparing apples and oranges.

I see these people every day and yes, they are poor.

Federal monies? What does the source of income have to do with it? People will move because their money goes further, but how does it matter where the money is coming from?

Makes no sense.

He paid no "income tax". The other taxes are actually taxes paid by his businesses.

The simple point is Donald Trump has paid no income tax for several years. You can't refute that. We have seen some of his tax filings and he has acknowledged it.

The other stuff he says is just the usual BS he is always saying like, "Obama is the founder of ISIS".

You are right, I should have said he pays no income taxes. I would quibble about the distinction of his companies paying taxes and Donald Trump paying taxes, but it is not important. Donald Trump has paid no income tax for some years now.

No one is smearing Trump. I am recounting a simple fact that Trump has acknowledged is true. YOU seem to have an incredible cognitive dissonance about the matter and simply can't accept the true facts.

I'll let her know you said this next time I see her. BTW, the ACA was not important to her as she is on Medicaid anyway.

DC was not included in the other data because it is not a state. But why would you include "retirement benefits" in this calculation? You are talking about social security payments to individuals which is based on how much they paid into SS? That seems to be outside this conversation. I'm not clear on what the other columns are like Salaries and Wages... who is getting their salary paid by the feds other than fed workers??? Yeah, I think DC, Maryland and Virginia are going to win that one! How does Alaska top MD and VA in that category??? And Hawaii, how do they top the list other than DC?

I think these two categories are skewing the data terribly.

Interesting charts.

So nobody likes paying for the defence forces, who don't do anything much i f there is a war on? James Arthur's anti-taxation rhetoric happily ignores all the reasons for collecting taxes that even he accepts as legitimate - i t's a lot easier than attacking the kinds of government expenditure that he doesn't like, and less nakedly self-interested.

He didn't assume anything of the sort. He merely picked out an example grou p who seem to more deluded than most.

It doesn't work when James Arthur and his allies pass out the money.

In places like Scandinavia and Germany, where the people in government aren 't quite as interested in making sure that socialism isn't seen to be pract ical, giving money to people who didn't earn it - and their kids - seems to have produced a whole lot less poverty, and a much more skilled, productiv e and cooperative working class.

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?I pay tax, and I pay federal tax, too,? he said."

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Trump managed to rack up that $916 million dollar personal loss in 1995 at the start of series of bankruptcies that lost a lot of investors and sub-co ntractors a whole lot more - in total.

This is the guy you are happy to have running the country. He may be innoce nt of any crime - bar a few low level sexual assaults - but he also seems t o be innocent of any experience of running a profitable business, and distr essing sophisticated about running a business into the ground for fun and p ersonal profit.

They choose not to understand. This kind of gotchya nonsense is why i know liberals are wrong.

I wonder who bule thought that he was responding to.

Since he has snipped all of what he was responding to, it's not easy to find out, and anybody who can't put himself in the place of the people who are going to read his ignorant opinion isn't going to have an opinion worth taking seriously.

As bule keeps on reminding us ...

That is an incorrect characterization of Social Security. As a historical average, roughly 90% of any monies you pay in are immediately used to pay benefits to people who are already retired. Only a small fraction is set aside.

I agree that we'd need a more rigorous definition of whether a *state* is "mooching."

For example, if a group of people, dependent on the federal government, choose to migrate to an efficient state to live more comfortably on their federal allowances, is the *state* mooching?

Cheers, James Arthur

Or the Canadians retiring to Arizona? ...Jim Thompson

I don't understand your objection. Are you saying that someone earning $20k who owns a house in Mississippi, is as impoverished as someone who earns the same amount and can't afford a shared apartment in New York city? Federal poverty statistics count them as 'equal.'

As for selling their houses and moving, that is precisely what has been happening as people leave CA, MA, NY, etc.

Cheers, James Arthur

Many people are actually trapped in CA, MA, NY... they either can't sell their house because its worth is less than the mortgage or there are no buyers since the population IS decreasing.

I can't understand why anyone would want to live in MA or NY; CA has nice climate but nothing else.

I always get a kick out of snot-nosed New Yawkers talking about their excellent restaurants... better restaurants and better prices can easily be found in the Phoenix 'burbs... even better seafood ;-) ...Jim Thompson

Oceans, beaches, mountains, stunningly beautiful places. Lots of smart and interesting people. Fabulous women.

I studied America for 8 months before moving here. Traveled, researched climate and pollen and ski areas, subscribed to newspapers, went on lots of paid-expense interviews all over the USA. The runner-up was Oregon. I didn't consider Arizona because I don't like heat.

It's Dungeness crab season here now. Last years was mostly closed, so they are big and fat and sweet now. The Herb Caen San Francisco Dinner is cracked crab, sourdough, and Anchor Steam Beer. One big crab feeds two of us, with enough picked crabmeat for a few crab cakes later in the week. Mo is picking up a crab for dinner tonight, 2 pounds or so.

The cats have developed a taste for crab, which stresses the crabcake situation.

Not quite since one owns a house and one doesn't.

But if they were both renting then yes they are equally impoverished. It's just that one is likely to be living outside their means (by choosing to live in one of the most expensive locations on earth).

I live out in the "sticks" (countryside). If I drive to the center of London I do not become instantly poorer. (Well there's the congestion charge...).

Do they include assets? Otherwise Trump would be classed as below the poverty line during his no-tax years :)

Poverty statistics seem a bit strange anyway, being a moving target. They are more a measure of inequality.

If you say so but property values, and to a lesser extent costs of living, tend to reflect the degree to which people want to live there.

Location, location, location as they say.

They could be cashing in the profit they made on their properties.

View from the other side of the pond seems a wee bit cloudy... but I'm so glad you know so much more than we do. ...Jim Thompson

We're just chatting Jim.