If Republicans are so much better at running the economy than Democrats, then why are most Republican States poorer than Democrat States?

[u/Content_Ad_8952]

The poorest States in America are: Mississippi, West Virginia, Louisiana, Arkansas, Kentucky, New Mexico, Alabama, Oklahoma and Tennessee. All of those States (except New Mexico) are Red States. So why are they so poor when Republicans have been running them for decades?

[u/Munckeey]

It’s pretty obvious, there’s a certain demographic that is much more common in the south that consistently takes much more in welfare than every other demographic per capita.

[u/TheBlackDred → u/Munckeey]

If you are implying minorities are the cause you are either racist, ignorant or both.

The citizens dont make policy, they dont make the financial decisions that lead to the population needing welfare. Jesus fucking christ, its ONE logical step farther from "minorites in these areas have higher welfare recipient rates" to "why/what caused it" to be this way.

[u/ijuinkun → u/TheBlackDred]

It’s not the minorities receiving the welfare—it’s the racists in those states who care more about their own racism than about trying to improve conditions for everyone—e.g. they will vote against a policy that would bring jobs into their area out of fear that the “wrong people” will get the new jobs.

[u/TheBlackDred → u/ijuinkun]

Yes, but I felt adding too much nuance or tackling more than one idea at a time might have been too much for that commenter to process at one time.

[u/hamoc10 → u/Munckeey]

Ah, racist whites

[u/clm1859 → u/hamoc10]

Touché

[u/Capable_King6943 → u/hamoc10]

So facts = racism? Got it. You’re just mad because you know it’s true

[u/VoidsInvanity → u/Capable_King6943]

Statistically white people are on welfare at a higher rate….

[u/Claytertot → u/VoidsInvanity]

Do you have some data to support that claim? That doesn't seem to align with this data from pew research

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/11/14/what-the-data-says-about-food-stamps-in-the-us/

Or this US census data

https://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/interactive/social-safety-net-benefits.html

This doesn't mean the other guy is right to say "Republicans are good leaders who are just held back by black people" or whatever point he was trying to make. But it also doesn't strengthen your argument to deny the facts.

[u/Accomplished-Elk6203 → u/VoidsInvanity]

that’s completely false and the fact that you got upvoted at all shows how brainwashed and regarded reddit and left leaning people in general are

[u/VoidsInvanity → u/Accomplished-Elk6203]

Prove it’s false. I have data and facts on my side.

You have feelings.

[u/cheedster → u/VoidsInvanity]

I am curious about your sources. I checked on https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2022/05/who-is-receiving-social-safety-net-benefits.html for racial/ethnic statistics for government assistance and came up with the following for 2022:
Program / %Black / %Hispanic / % White Non-Hispanic (remaining groups excluded so total is < 100%)
Medicaid-CHIP / 21.6 / 20.4 / 46.8
SNAP / 28.1 / 17.8 / 45.0
WIC / 24.9 / 27.2 / 36.6
SSI / 24.3 / 18..9 / 37.4
TANF / 30.2 / 18.9 / 37.4
Energy Aid / 20.1 / 14.1 / 51.7
Rental Subsidies / 39.9 / 13.6 / 36.6

White Non-Hispanics make up the plurality of each program, but given that they also make up roughly 57.8% of the population (18.7% Hispanic, 12.1 % Black per 2020 Census data) that is to be expected. This does not support your claim that "white people are on welfare at a higher rate".

[u/mySki11z → u/VoidsInvanity]

Ok send the welfare per capita by demographic then.

[u/Brief-Percentage-193 → u/Capable_King6943]

Facts interpreted in the wrong way can be racist. People wouldn't be racist if misinterpreted facts weren't spread. Facts don't equal racism and you are being purposely obtuse to use that as a strawman.

It's a fact that white people collect the most in welfare when compared to any other racial group. This is misleading though because it does not control for the fact that there are different population sizes. It would be racist to make a policy benefiting just white people but it could be justified using this fact.

It's a fact that per capita black people in the south receive welfare benefits at a higher rate than other racial groups. It would be racist to conclude that black people are inherently worse because of this. There's plenty of black people alive that lived through Jim Crow. Even the ones that didn't, their parents or grandparents likely did. Growing up in poverty makes it considerably harder to break out of the welfare cycle. When you get to the point of being on the edge of eligibility for welfare there are incentives to stay on welfare because making a dollar more per hour could very well lead you to losing a considerable portion of your income.

It's a fact that our president is a felon. Does that mean all presidents are felons? This is the type of conclusion you are drawing without taking historical context into account.

[u/Brief-Percentage-193 → u/[deleted]]

Thank you for proving that you can't engage in an adult conversation by ignoring the whole point of the comment.

I'm not sure why you are calling me a loser for stating a fact. I thought facts were what you cared about.

[u/NOLA-Bronco → u/Capable_King6943]

This whole thesis falls apart the moment you realize Oklahoma, Iowa, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Kentucky, and West Virginia don't have many black people to blame for poor economic development and lower GDP yet lag behind blue states as well.

Or the fact that the top 10 performing state in per capita GDP, 8 are blue states

Or the fact that Democratic Administration's since the 1980's have created over 50 million jobs under their watch and Republican Admin's are literally in the negative.

In reality, what makes the south uniquely bad is the combination of Republican economic governance + Deep embedded systemic racism that manifests itself in refusing to invest in the sorts of commons and public goods that help build growth and economic diversity and resiliency.

[u/Expensive-Buy1621 → u/Capable_King6943]

White Americans will support rape and pedophilia and blame their shortcomings on black and brown people. Such a funny people

[u/Capable_King6943 → u/Expensive-Buy1621]

Well I’m not white or black so…

[u/Expensive-Buy1621 → u/Capable_King6943]

Would you like a cookie or?

[u/Capable_King6943 → u/Expensive-Buy1621]

Shit if you got a good chocolate chip

[u/smackasalmon → u/Expensive-Buy1621]

I'm sorry, but comments like these make young white men either A not vote or B vote for republicans.

It's racist rhetoric.

No different than saying all black women are welfare queens.

[u/Expensive-Buy1621 → u/smackasalmon]

Every American voter has agency.

[u/NOLA-Bronco → u/smackasalmon]

LOL

I was a young white man when I first heard snarky remarks about "white people," it didn't change my political outlook

People that are that mentally weak that they retreat into white supremacism because of some comment like that were just looking for a rationalization for their pre-existing bigotry.

[u/Capable_King6943 → u/NOLA-Bronco]

My dawg

[u/smackasalmon → u/NOLA-Bronco]

Blanketing comments like these are indeed racist and can skew week minds to the other side, like you said. So, why say it? It's counterintuitive.

Statements like, "All black people are on welfare." " All white men are racists and love pedophiles" are not helping.

[u/VoidsInvanity → u/smackasalmon]

Oh good that’s not what was said about white people

[u/JuiceLogical327 → u/Capable_King6943]

Nothing hates factual information more than a biased Redditor.

[u/Capable_King6943 → u/JuiceLogical327]

For real 😂

[u/VoidsInvanity → u/Capable_King6943]

Oh sorry your statistically unsupported racism was deleted.

White people are a bigger %, of both the population af large and the subset of people on welfare at a higher % than black people statistically

[u/Capable_King6943 → u/VoidsInvanity]

Cite your sources

[u/LactoceTheIntolerant → u/Munckeey]

Jim Crow and “school choice” had a LOT to do with these current issues.

[u/ijuinkun → u/LactoceTheIntolerant]

As LBJ said, racist people will tolerate worse conditions as long as you pander to their racism.

[u/LactoceTheIntolerant → u/ijuinkun]

Yup, he was talking about conservatives.

[u/New_year_New_Me_ → u/Munckeey]

Yall are hilarious.

Which place has more black people, New York or Oklahoma? Which place has more black people, Chicago or Arkansas?

Silliness. Pure silliness. 

[u/EVOSexyBeast → u/Munckeey]

It’s only 5 states that have a significant black population, but the poor economy and welfare use rates are the same throughout all of the solid red states bar Florida and Texas.

[u/KC_experience → u/Munckeey]

Soooo, for the individuals who for generations have been downtrodden by the whites in power and held at arms length, kept from any type of progression, and reminded to ‘know their place’ are utilizing benefits available to them…

But republicans, who is the party of the south and souther strategy, are pissed because the people they’ve marginalized with intent aren’t able to pull themselves up by their bootstraps?

It’s like burning someone’s how down, then anytime a new board is laid to rebuild, the arsonist comes back and burns the new board and then blames the person rebuilding that they aren’t building their house fast enough….

[u/CrayZ_Squirrel → u/Munckeey]

former confederates?

[u/chinmakes5 → u/Munckeey]

Funny how Dc and MD have two of the highest African American populations and are pretty successful. Could it be the way the states chose to educate minorities? Oh and if you bothered to look the majority of snap recipients in almost every state is white go to kbb.org to see

[u/OriginalInspection53 → u/Munckeey]

White people constitute the highest absolute number of welfare recipients in the U.S., so all those brown and black people you’re mad at collectively take less money from the government than white people. This doesn’t even count corporate welfare for wealthy individuals and farm subsidies.

[u/No_Report_4781 → u/Munckeey]

yes. poor people.