I may have to stop being a New York Yankees fan. The state of my birth is a national embarrassment. People in the Empire State are national champions in the contest to rip off their fellow citizens according to analysis from USA Today. West Virginia, however, is the biggest deadbeat state if handouts are compared to state income.
But kudos to the folks in Utah for swindling the least amount of money from other Americans (and perhaps secondary congratulations to the Mormon Church for emphasizing self reliance). Here’s an excerpt from the article.
New Yorkers get more government aid per person from social programs than residents of any other state, a USA TODAY analysis finds. …The state’s Medicaid program is the most expensive in the nation, driving the average cost of all government benefits in New Yorkto $9,442 per person. …USA TODAY analyzed data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Census Bureau to determine the importance of government benefits in each state. The benefit numbers represent average amounts received per person — not just for those in a program. The benefits include what people receive for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, veterans’ programs, college scholarships and many other government programs. …West Virginia…gets 28% of its income from government programs, more than any other state. The state’s residents are the second oldest, after Florida’s, and 20% collect disability.
Data for all states can be seen by clicking on the USA Today story, but here are the highlights (or lowlights), featuring the five states that have the highest per-capita mooching from the federal trough. And we also list the five states that deserve credit for being the most self-reliant.
Five Biggest Moocher States Top States for Being Self-Reliant
New York $9,442 Utah $4,731
West Virginia $9,138 Colorado $5,632
Rhode Island $8,955 Virginia $6,001
Maine $8,864 Nevada $6,080
Pennsylvania $8,616 Texas $6,167
[…] this basis, the best states are South Dakota, Utah, Wisconsin, and […]
If people are becoming more dependent on the federal government it’s because the private sector has failed them. Wages haven’t risen for the typical person in 20 years. New York has high taxes but overall that pays for the quality of life we have in this state. We have pretty low crime, excellent schools, good roads (upstate more so than downstate), some of the best park systems in the nation, excellent farmland preservation programs, good environmental protection, some of the best arts in the nation – even outside of New York. So I pay high taxes, but it’s also nice to not see the abject poverty that you see in the South where there’s less support and we also see a lot less destitution. I see a lot more destitution even in Ohio, Michigan, and other places with lower taxes that are not Southern.
[…] For instance, what happens is you look at federal aid adjusted for population (which USA Today did in 2011). Or maybe even adjusted for the poverty rate as well (an approached used for the Moocher […]
hmmm, suppose having some good ol’ Mormon principles in the White House might not be a bad thing for America…???
[…] Daniel J. Mitchell New York is the number one moocher state […]
Except levi, the reason NY and all those states are leaders is they have a large percentage of “high earners” that hardly take any of the mentioned welfare benefits. What we really learn by the combination of the two is that NY is a very stratified society and West Virginia is just dirt poor all around.
OTOH, in terms of overall federal spending relative to federal tax collections by state, New York is overall a net payer into the federal government.
http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxdata/show/266.html
(data from 2005)
New York: $0.79 in spending per $1 in tax collected
West Virginia: $1.76
Rhode Island: $1.00
Maine: $1.41
Pennsylvania: $1.07
Meanwhile, for the self-reliant states…
Utah: $1.07
Colorado: $0.81
Virginia: $1.51
Nevada: $0.65
Texas: $0.94
The argument could be made that there wouldn’t be as much need for welfare spending in New York if the federal government didn’t take so much from New York and redistribute it among the other states.
These states are the self-reliant states per the Tax Foundation:
New Jersey ($0.61 in spending per dollar in taxes… I’m sure most New Jerseyites could think of better places 39% of their federal taxes could go)
Nevada ($0.65)
Connecticut ($0.69)
New Hampshire ($0.71)
Minnesota ($0.72)
Illinois ($0.75)
Delaware ($0.77)
California ($0.78)
New York ($0.79)
Colorado ($0.81)
Massachusetts ($0.82)
Wisconsin ($0.86)
Washington ($0.88)
Michigan ($0.92)
Oregon ($0.93)
Texas ($0.94)
Florida ($0.97)
As a baseball fan, I highly recommend renouncing your Yankee fanship.
Also surprised that Alaska is not on the biggest-moocher list. Though this is for social programs only, correct?
-Ryan