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Ziggy's avatar

States suffer from the Tiebout problem--any state that provides a high level of public services will tend to lose the individuals and businesses that do not benefit from the additional public services. This is exacerbated by Republican ideology, which holds that the only good public services employ people with guns.

Tiebout was much less vicious back in the day, when Republicans supported public services that did not involve transfer payments to the poor: e.g., schools and roads. But they don't believe in schools and roads any more.

Richard Reed's avatar

Excellent. You address the original sin of the USA: States' Rights, or "the right to treat anyone we want any way we want without Federal interference." What was originally presented as philosophy of democratic government became a rejection of national standards of behaviour. I usually get stopped at this emotional juncture, so your offer of concrete examples is really great.

Michael Alan Dover, PhD's avatar

Great points. Nathan Newman just wrote on the federal/state issue here: https://nathannewman.substack.com/p/stop-sending-federal-money-through

Max B. Sawicky's avatar

This is my bailiwick. Nathan mangles the history and glosses over the difficulties in his proposals.