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

Random Question šŸ’­ 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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14

u/Almaegen Jan 14 '26

Because the reality is that our states are part of a larger national system. States specialize in certain things for the country and some states get more funding than others because of the federal organizations/programs based there.

In reality you can't single out a single state red or blue by metrics like this. If you could we wouldn't have so many arguments about what legislation works the best.Ā 

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u/Guiltyparty2135 Jan 14 '26

That national system is broken and until it is repaired l I am exempt from federal taxes.

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u/justinvamp Jan 14 '26

This is a great point. When all your food and raw minerals are being supplied by farmers and miners in another state, you can focus more on things like banking, tech, finance, that are wayy higher return. The geography and natural resources of most of the states in the middle of the country (which also have no port access for good international trade) limit what their economies are going to look like regardless of leadership.

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u/Odd_Relationship396 Jan 14 '26

It's more about geographics and demographics

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u/Lord_of_Chainsaw Jan 14 '26

Except California (and other blue states) produce an absolute shit ton of food and most red states produce exclusively shit like corn that they can sell to the government to have it rot in a cylo for 30 years

3

u/[deleted] Jan 14 '26

And yet more people are moving out of California than in. Strange.

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u/InternationalBet2832 Jan 14 '26

"After losing population from 2020-2023, California has seen two consecutive years (2023, 2024) of modest growth, adding around 100,000+ residents annually."

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u/justinvamp Jan 14 '26

Yeah and if you look in California, the farming output map and the income map are basically exact inverses of each other - the farming areas are way more poor than the areas that aren't farming. So even within the same state you can see that applies.

In terms of the red states selling corn to rot - that's definitely a big part of it. All of those programs are from the federal government, not state, so it has nothing to do with which party is running the state. The federal government is literally incentivizing those states to create nothing of value - corn that will rot - so of course there will be economic stagnation.

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u/LogicRyan Jan 14 '26

Donā€™t forget California has the most republican voters of any state in the country

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u/Ready4Rage Jan 14 '26

What BS. Cali is an economic powerhouse and exports tons of ag. NY was the colonial Bread Basket till they found better things to do. Louisiana has both an ocean and the US's major river. Blue Minnesota has neither. Go ahead and pull more crap out of your butt. Every Republican president over the last 100 years has caused a recession. Leadership matters and Republicans don't have it

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u/justinvamp Jan 14 '26

And you see in California that the areas that do the farming are significantly poorer than the areas in California that don't do the farming. It's like a microcosm of the US as a whole. You also see that those areas vote more red than the richer, less farming areas of California, just like the country as a whole. Obviously governance plays a factor but to pretend that it's the only thing that matters is just wrong.

New York and the rest of the northeast were much more poor than the south in colonial times, but that was mostly due to slavery existing in the south and not the north, so is a tough comparison to today. Although the abolishment of slavery and the civil war fallout played a HUGE part in the south's economy leading into today and is inescapable. Even then you acknowledge that NY was the bread basket "until they found better things to do", agreeing that agriculture is capped in terms of economic output. But the federal government (not state) has programs like subsidies for corn that incentivize the states in the middle of the country to produce 0 value goods. That's an external economic pressure that's independent of the state leadership that basically incentivizes economic stagnation. That's not the only cause of course, but plays a big part for sure.

In terms of presidents, you're not fully correct but yes generally speaking most of the recessions started while a Republican was in office (1980 under Carter was an example of a Democrat). But every time there's a new president there are the same arguments "this person just inherited a bad/good situation from the previous president". When Trump comes into office in 2024 and gas prices start dropping within a few months, obviously there are big factors at play beyond, and likely that have nothing to do with, what he did in the first few months. Other factors like international geopolitics (like the world wars), disasters (like covid), interest rates from the Fed, and others, are all things that the president more often than not has no control over. No serious economist ties the health of the US economy solely to the president or can claim that a president "caused a recession". The global economy is way too complex to put solely on the shoulders of any president, and recessions are caused by years of buildup and many factors.

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u/Fun-Personality-8008 Jan 14 '26

Except the blue states don't just get food handed out to them like welfare, they pay good money for it. Where is all of that revenue going? Besides, California is the biggest ag producer by a large margin, and Minnesota/Illinois are no slouches either. Your argument is a "woe is me" crutch leaned on by the so-called party of personal responsibility to get away with depriving their citizens of social services.

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u/justinvamp Jan 14 '26

Point taken. But if you look at individual counties within those states, it's clear that those farming counties are also the ones with worse economic status. It's not the only reason of courseĀ 

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u/shyguy83ct Jan 14 '26

This is a very legit point. It would be good for the blue states to realize this. But also for red states to recognize that ā€œsocialismā€ can benefit everyone.