Red State, Blue State

You want to live somewhere that has a growing economy and high standard of living, one that lets you keep more of the money you make, while somehow also managing to efficiently provide the necessary public services.  Don’t live in a Dem-run state is the pretty obvious answer in almost every case.  A report from a group called Unleash Prosperity reinforces that perspective.  The authors looked at growth in personal income, which obviously has substantial impact on living standards, from 2000 to 2024 in every state and classified states by Dem or Rep-run or mixed.  Rep states had 71% personal income growth over the period and Dem run only 49%.  Then the authors went further to ensure that random factors, like Texas has a lot of oil and gas companies, weren’t affecting the results.

They noted that many people and companies moved from Dem states to Rep states, which helped underpin the stronger economic growth.  Tax policy is another factor and the states with the highest taxes are all Dem-run.  Those high-taxes obviously aren’t helping create more economic growth.  So much for how helpful government is to economic activity.  Dem run states have excessive regulation and higher levels of wasteful spending and fraud.  California’s high-speed train to nowhere is an example, and Minnesota is right up there with the light rail boondogle and our astounding level of Medicaid and other government program fraud.

After controlling for these and a wide variety of other factors, the authors concluded that the political makeup of a state, which party controlled its policies, was indeed far and away the dominant factor in explaining the variation in economic performance among states.  But you already knew that.  Because this trend appears inevitable, we can expect ongoing movement of people and businesses to states that are Rep-run.  (UP Report)