Some Red State/Blue State Indicia

Why should I be. I think the United States has done well. And outperformed the UK in growth since 1990.

In the same way that California has outperformed Florida: In 1990 per capita GDP in California was 130% of what is what in Florida. Now it 140%. Reflecting faster growth in California.
 
California has the luxury of spending double than Florida on projects that produce nothing. Bad for citizens, bad for tax payers, but great for connected NGOs and fantastic for GDP numbers!
 
Feel free to x out everything that doesn't suit your narrative.
Im not delusional about the scale of californias exonomic might. Silicon valley and the farming industry is a beheamoth to drive insane economic output.

Just a shame their government had held it back so thouroughly, and actually has begun eroding it. Businesses and people alike fleeing for the first time in its history.

Imagone the might of california with Florida's governance. I recall we asked our robot friend what would happen with that environment. Do you remember?
 
Isn’t California’s budget in a 21 BILLION deficit ?
Actually California's rainy day fund is approaching its statutory upper limit and the voters are likely to be asked within the next couple years to raise it. The windfalls from looming IPOs by SpaceX, Anthropic and Open AI are going to push it well past the statutory limit.
 
Why? Bc they have more than you? Any other justification?
That's a good enough reason.

But the main reason is government does a lot of good thangs and we should pay our bills as a polity. I believe in progressive taxation. I favor many of the thangs that government provides.

At the state level there is a striking (positive) correlation between government activity and positive outcomes when it comes to productivity, education and health. Maybe it is just a coincidence. Causality can be hard to parse.
 
That's a good enough reason.

But the main reason is government does a lot of good thangs and we should pay our bills as a polity. I believe in progressive taxation. I favor many of the thangs that government provides.
"I want more free stuff and those people should pay for it"

6 year old maturity from the phd
 
"I want more free stuff and those people should pay for it"

6 year old maturity from the phd
At the state level, governments with bigger budgets are highly correlated with better outcomes on all sorts of productivity, health and educational outcomes.
 
Morally, why should the burden fall on some people and not you
Probably the best ethical argument is John Rawls' veil of ignorance. But there are others, including some that spring from faith traditions. For example, Catholic Social Teaching (CST) strongly supports progressivity. Documents like Mater et Magistra (John XXIII) and the U.S. Bishops' Economic Justice for All (1986) call for taxes "proportioned to the capacity of the people contributing."
 
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