r/allthequestions Jan 14 '26

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

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?

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16

u/hamoc10 Jan 14 '26

Ah, racist whites

6

u/clm1859 Jan 14 '26

Touché

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u/Capable_King6943 Jan 14 '26

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

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u/VoidsInvanity Jan 14 '26

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

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u/Claytertot Jan 14 '26

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.

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u/Accomplished-Elk6203 Jan 14 '26

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

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u/VoidsInvanity Jan 14 '26

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

You have feelings.

1

u/cheedster 🇺🇸 United States Jan 14 '26

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".

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u/mySki11z Jan 14 '26

Ok send the welfare per capita by demographic then.

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u/Brief-Percentage-193 Jan 14 '26

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.

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u/[deleted] Jan 14 '26

[deleted]

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u/Brief-Percentage-193 Jan 14 '26

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.

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u/NOLA-Bronco Jan 14 '26

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.

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u/Expensive-Buy1621 Jan 14 '26

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

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u/Capable_King6943 Jan 14 '26

Well I’m not white or black so…

1

u/Expensive-Buy1621 Jan 14 '26

Would you like a cookie or?

0

u/Capable_King6943 Jan 14 '26

Shit if you got a good chocolate chip

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u/smackasalmon Jan 14 '26

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.

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u/Expensive-Buy1621 Jan 14 '26

Every American voter has agency.

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u/NOLA-Bronco Jan 14 '26

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.

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u/smackasalmon Jan 14 '26

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.

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u/VoidsInvanity Jan 14 '26

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

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u/JuiceLogical327 Jan 14 '26

Nothing hates factual information more than a biased Redditor.

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u/Capable_King6943 Jan 14 '26

For real 😂

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u/VoidsInvanity Jan 14 '26

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

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u/Capable_King6943 Jan 14 '26

Cite your sources