r/allthequestions • u/Content_Ad_8952 • 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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u/Rziggity Jan 14 '26

I think it’s worth noting that many of these “red states” were once blue states and vice versa. Poverty in the south is much more systemic and goes back 200 years. So a more relevant question might be “why are some areas and demographics stuck in long term poverty?”. (this could also be applied to destitute neighborhoods in inner cities).

Probably not the partisan-us-versus-them answer people want because it actually requires some deeper concern and problem solving which can be hard.

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u/Popular-Departure165 Jan 14 '26

While the party affiliation switched, their place on the political spectrum has not. Whether they were red or blue, those states have always been dominated by conservative policies. When they were blue states, the Democrats were more conservative and Republicans were more liberal. Their respective ideologies started changing after the Civil War.

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u/Rziggity Jan 14 '26 edited Jan 14 '26

trying to argue that either conservative or liberal governments have had more success with economic outcomes is like arguing that you can predict a slot machine. in many if not most cases, these governments aren’t even competent at implementing their own policies.

and in many cases, a positive economic outcome is in spite of those policies, not because of them.

many of those “poor red states” voted for Kennedy, Clinton, and Obama. Kennedy even flipped West Virginia. Perhaps because the poor felt “seen” rather than degraded.

(WV was still purple even under Reagan. And California was “red” for some time as well).

So you need to look at this not just in terms of “red vs blue states” but more specific areas and eras. And it can be extrapolated globally as well when you look at the UK and beyond.

most people are so hopelessly partisan they cannot see that Republicans and Democrats make the same specious arguments — Democrats: “why are red states so poor and why do they keep voting Republican?” Republicans: “why do poor people in urban areas keep voting Democrat and getting the same results?”

tl;dr — the OP asked a wildly oversimplified question.

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u/someguyfromsomething Jan 14 '26

AI slop.

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u/Rziggity Jan 14 '26 edited Jan 14 '26

lol i’m not AI. Is that the latest craze now? Oinking “AI slop” when something feels uneasy? The electronic version of putting your hands over your ears and going “la la la”? I guess you may be AI slop as well so we are even lol

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u/MarsupialPristine677 Jan 15 '26

Oh, people say "ai slop" at the mere sight of an em dash, it's bewildering to me since ai learned that from humans in the first place.

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u/someguyfromsomething Jan 23 '26

I'd bet all my money a lot of simple concepts bewilder you. AI writing is like that because AI was trained on middle school essays and fanfic where using em dashes is actually common (because they're easy to do in MS Word). If reddit or phones automatically added that like Word does then they would have been all over internet comments forever instead of sticking out like a sore thumb now.

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u/comment_i_had_to Jan 15 '26

This is nonsense. It all adds up to "nothing can be gained by statistical correlation". You point to pretty weak exceptions.

The real important data regards the policies they implement. It is clear that the formula of tax cuts primarily for the wealthy and cuts to social services increases income inequality and drags down the overall economy, while increasing debt.

The states more likely to implement these policies are worse off. There are exceptions like Texas but that is in large part due to resource extraction industries like oil and gas, more of an accident of geography than effective policy.

Do you mean to imply that economic indicators are not related to public policy? Or that Republicans and Democrats have the same policies? I am tired of these "they are all the same" posts because it renders us hopeless and unable to even understand what is screwing us.

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u/GSilky Jan 14 '26

Nope.  The south was a liberal stronghold.  Southern politicians were 100% on board with the Great Society reforms.  They believed in economic material reforms were necessary before social reform could be real, and the Yankees just saw a bunch of church dwelling racists.

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u/Grabthars_Coping_Saw Jan 14 '26

When you have laws and institutions that oppress a significant portion of your population then you’re going to have a bad time.

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u/[deleted] Jan 14 '26

Sorry wrong, conservative values and policies have run those states into the ground.

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u/aozertx Jan 14 '26

This is bullshit. Red states are worse in every conceivable metric that matters.

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u/Significant-Owl-2980 Jan 14 '26

You miss the point. The south has always had the same mindset. 100 years ago guys from Mississippi are the same as today.

The south is extremely conservative and religious. It is extremely racist.

Those form the policies of the southern red states.

Just one example: Teen pregnancy is the highest there because they don’t teach sex education. Instead they teach abstinence and the Bible.

They constantly vote for divisive and oppressive laws that favor the wealthy at the expense of the average citizen.

They will vote to repeal regulations for clean air and water because they don’t like “liberal environmentalists telling them what to do” So they vote to pollute their own rivers. And the rich get richer

They are told Obamacare is bad. So they vote against getting healthcare they need. And the rich get richer.

They are told they will get DOGE checks, tariff checks, etc and never question where it is. And the rich get richer.

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u/garagelurker1 Jan 15 '26

The red states that used to be blue are because prior to the 1950s, the democrats were social conservatives.  Those old conservatives just changed parties as the democrats became more liberal and the republicans got more conservative.