Wednesday, December 01, 2004

Backbone of America

Who really has the power? Who are the people who make this country work? People in the south and the “heartland” say it’s they who embody what America is all about and they who are the backbone of the nation. But what I am finding is that since one of their main institutions is the church, and churches don’t generate tax revenue, (they generate plenty of cash, they just don’t have to pay taxes) and that institution limits free thought and free speech, puts limitations on science, medicine, and since they typically don’t believe in birth control and end up with too many damn kids, they aren’t producing the economic or cultural contributions that the blue states contribute to the country.
Here are some red state blue state comparisons: First off, blue states and red states are a little hard to define because technically Florida and Ohio are what I would consider blue states. The reason they are blue states is for one, Florida did cast the majority of their votes for Gore, although that slut bag Katherine Harris (chairman of the Bush 2000 Florida campaign) and Florida’s Secretary of State, decided she would give it to Bush. The other reasons are that the last two elections there were so close and both of the states have large urban populations and are not considered to be ultra conservative bible thumpers.From the 2004 elections the blue states represent about 45 percent of the US population, with Florida added that brings you to about 49-50 percent and with Ohio and Florida you’re looking at 52 percent of the total population of the US. That’s only 21 states that encompass roughly 30percent of the US land mass.First off, let’s look at what makes a blue state a blue state, generally its based on the percentage of urban vs. the percentage of rural residents, what kind of jobs the residents have, their ethnic make up and education. Blue states on average have about 1.5-2 point higher general IQ among its residents and of the top 15 colleges in the United States only Duke is in a red state. And when you look at the Ivy League schools, where are they? Columbia-NY, Dartmouth-NH, Princeton-NJ, Harvard-MA, Yale-CT, U of Penn-PE, Cornell-NY, and Brown which is in Rhode Island, all blue states.The 21 blue states account for roughly 65 percent of the GNP and account for about 65 percent of all federal taxes paid.I know a lot of conservatives bitch about welfare moms wasting US tax payer’s money, but since a lot of these people come from red states I thought they might like to know that they are just as guilty as the fat lady in the projects with 5 kids who buys potato chips and grape drink with her food stamps. Blue states, including Florida paid in roughly 65 percent or more, of all the taxes collected by the federal government. That is roughly 800 Billion more than the all red states paid!* There are some exceptions, OH (blue state wannabe) TX, NC, NV, CO, and GA paid more than they received in federal money and some blue states such as Pennsylvania received more than they paid in.* But compared to California which paid out over 250 billion more than it received in federal money*, that’s basically the same as a guy who works hard and makes a lot of money but is taxed 40 percent of what he makes so that someone who decided to have 3 babies when they were 17 and drop out of school to smoke meth all day can pay less taxes or live for free. So red states, it’s either one or the other, should we keep this welfare mess going? By the way California’s GNP is about the same as all the former confederate states combined, yet California lives through brownouts and goes thirsty in the summer so Alabama and Indiana can keep their taxes low and talk about small government and put the 10 commandments on bathroom walls and take out menus, or where ever else they can post them.
Some examples of what I am talking about, for every dollar New Jersey pays in taxes it gets back $.57 in federal subsidies, California gets $.81 back, Illinois gets $.77 back and for every dollar Oklahoma pays in taxes, it gets $1.48 back, Montana $1.57, Alabama $1.61 and Mississippi gets $1.84 in federal subsidies for every dollar it pays in taxes.
So why do these states get more tax dollars than the other states? One reason is because there is a 190 billion dollar farm subsidy that congress provides farmers, and where do the farmers live? Red states tend to be farmers, as where blue states tend to be in manufacturing, finance and technology fields.
You could also blame obesity on the red states, not just because they fry everything in butter fat but because the largest beneficiary of the 190 billion dollars is corn, and since corn syrup is cheaper and more fattening than sugar, we put corn syrup in almost every sweetened product on the market, and when you look at the rise in obesity with the rise in the use of corn syrup, the curve is almost identical.
So who is the real America, who is the real backbone, who makes the cars, finances those factories, cures diseases, educates their populations, and allows the flow of ideas and free thought, who are the innovators of technology? Where are companies like Apple, Microsoft, Ford, General Electric, the companies that changed the world located? Is the real heartland the great lakes, and the east and west coast? Is the south and Midwest just a bunch of fat, freeloading welfare moms? And if so, why do we let them elect our leaders and make our laws? Shouldn’t they just shut up, take what they can get from us and be happy? Don’t bite the hand that feeds you because sooner or later it'll bite back, again.

* The Cultural Divide http://www.retrovsmetro.org/

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