Last year, I compared the economic performance of red states and blue states.
My big takeaway from that column is that we should pay attention to the data on internal migration. More specifically, there’s a reason why Americans have been moving from high-tax states to low-tax states.
Today’s let’s follow up on that discussion.
Today’s Wall Street Journal has an editorial on the gap between blue states and red states. This accompanying illustration shows that there is a clear relationship between joblessness and the degree to which states pursue big-government policies.
And here’s how the WSJ explained the big differences.
The unemployment rate in April nationwide was 6.1%, but this obscures giant variations in the states. With some exceptions, those run by Democrats such as California (8.3%) and New York (8.2%) continued to suffer significantly higher unemployment than those led by Republicans such as South Dakota (2.8%) and Montana (3.7%). It’s rare to see differences that are so stark based on party control in states. But the current partisan differences reflect different policy choices over the length and severity of pandemic lockdowns and now government benefits such as jobless insurance. Nine of the 10 states with the lowest unemployment rates are led by Republicans. The exception is Wisconsin whose Supreme Court last May invalidated Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’s lockdown. …Most states in the Midwest, South and Mountain West aren’t far off their pre-pandemic employment peaks. One obstacle to a faster recovery may be the $300 federal unemployment bonus, which many GOP governors are rejecting. Meantime, states with Democratic governments continue to reward workers for sitting on the couch. The longer that workers stay unemployed, the harder it will be to get them to return to work.
For what it’s worth, I’m more upset about the subsidized unemployment than the differences in lockdown policies, particularly because the former is more indicative of economic illiteracy.
P.S. One of the worst parts of Biden’s waste-filled stimulus plan is that it gave a big bailout for states, based on a formula that actually rewarded them for having bad numbers.
P.P.S. Click here and here if you want to peruse comprehensive measures of state economic policy.
[…] column Part V of our series on red states vs blue states (previous editions available here, here, here, and […]
[…] factor in driving internal migration, but there are other factors as well (see here, here, here, here, […]
[…] column Part V of our series on red states vs blue states (previous editions available here, here, here, and […]
[…] Part II: Unemployment rates […]
[…] other states, mostly “blue states,” did the […]
[…] close by noting that red states have been outperforming blue states, and this Bloomberg data is another piece of powerful evidence to add to our […]
[…] close by noting that red states have been outperforming blue states, and this Bloomberg data is another piece of powerful evidence to add to our […]
[…] Part II, we discovered that red states did much better with regards to […]
And how does GDP per capita compare between red and blue states?
[…] people are urging a national divorce between blue states and red states, but a far more practical approach is Swiss-style […]
[…] The same is true for state policy and state prosperity. […]
[…] same is true for state policy and state […]
[…] but it’s impossible not to notice that there’s an overall trend of red statesgaining people and blue states losing […]
[…] impossible not to notice that there’s an overall trend of red states gaining people and blue states losing […]
[…] It’s almost as if it is okay to have policies that benefit rich people, so long as they mostly live in blue states. […]
[…] It’s almost as if it is okay to have policies that benefit rich people, so long as they mostly live in blue states. […]
[…] It’s almost as if it is okay to have policies that benefit rich people, so long as they mostly live in blue states. […]
[…] ranks in the top 10 for […]
[…] ranks in the top 10 for […]
[…] Red States vs Blue States, Part II […]
[…] for Economic Research’s Dan Mitchell, who’s covered New York’s monetary misery, found “a clear relationship between joblessness and the degree to which states pursue big-government […]
[…] Dan Mitchell looked at these figures and concluded that there’s “a clear relationship between joblessness and the degree to which states […]
[…] Dan Mitchell looked at these figures and concluded that there’s “a clear relationship between joblessness and the degree to which states pursue […]
[…] Dan Mitchell looked at these figures and concluded that there’s “a clear relationship between joblessness and the degree to which states pursue […]
People are moving from high-tax states to low, but are they changing their attitudes, or will they want entitlements just like their last address, though without the taxes?
[…] Red States vs Blue States, Part II […]
What is so hard about empirical evidence for liberals to understand?
[…] Red States vs Blue States, Part II […]