bounty44
Posts: 6374
Joined: 11/1/2014 Status: offline
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northerngent, please don't mind my jumping in here for a moment to correct something mnottertail (vile critter parts) said about the "welfare state south." im not sure whether to attribute this to him as a myth, a dig at the south (which tends to be more conservative), an outright lie, or his being incapable of learning. either way.... there are many forms of "welfare" but food stamps are a large part of it and here is some data relative to them. I just posted this recently on a thread that he was in (see my point above about learning). it was meant to answer another question (about red states and blue states) but the answer to this particular one is nevertheless there too: quote:
im sorry, that statement is essentially meaningless. which way a particular state goes in a presidential election--or if there is some other way to determine "red" or "blue"---has absolutely nothing to do with the demographics of who actually receives government assistance in the guise of food stamps. the question has to be answered on that level. ive seen the data before, and if I remember rightly, there are a surprising number of republicans on food stamps, but there is a small majority of democrats. in any event, here's the most recent raw data by states: http://www.fns.usda.gov/sites/default/files/pd/29SNAPcurrPP.pdf I haven't done all the addition, but a cursory view appears to show the blue states (as per the last election) receive most food stamps on the individual level. California, florida, new York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, ohio and Michigan are 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 10 in the top ten usage. only three red states are in the top ten, texas, Georgia and north Carolina at 2, 7 and 9 respectively. pretty much the top ten's numbers, tower over the remaining states. for instance it would take anywhere from 10-20 other states to meet California and florida combined totals. to make it more pertinent to his statement---3 of the top five states in food stamp usage are not southern states and 6 of the top ten are not southern states. whats more: there are 11 states (apparently) that have more people on welfare than people working. 5 are southern, 6 are not and the population in the 6 vastly outnumbers the population in the other 5. in fact 4 of the 6 are amongst the top 5-6 most populous states, California, new York, ohio, and Illinois). http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2013/10/11-states-that-have-more-people-on.html in 2014, ~8 million people in the usa were receiving SSI, a tax payer funded welfare program for low income elderly and some disabled people. the top ten states there are california, texas, ny, florida, Pennsylvania, ohio, michigan, illinois, georgia, and nc. four are states in the south, the other 6 are not and the amount of people in the non-southern states receiving help is 1.8x greater than in the southern states. https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/statcomps/ssi_sc/ there are other programs, most notably HUD, and TANF, and I don't have ready numbers for those, but given what ive already shared, I suspect it would be more of the same. in short, to call the south "the welfare state south" is patently untrue.
< Message edited by bounty44 -- 7/4/2016 1:31:19 PM >
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