Then why do Fed taxes get sent, consistently, from Northern & Pacific Coast states to Southern?
Perhaps because people there are more prosperous? And people there do not need the help?
Look, here's the deal,
.
I do not even hold the Southern economy against Southern Repub. politiicians. When the Dem. party was in power they were just as bad.
But the greatest number of states that refuse Fed help are Southern. What was an agrarian economy has never moved on to approach northern/Western relative prosperity.
Ever heard of the "Burned Over District"?
Although the reference is to the many millenial and utopian sects that rose in western New York state, it is also used for the never recovered farm district in the state. To this day it is the stepchild to general New York prosperity.
Some areas have never recovered from their rural roots.
Why is it cheaper in the South? Because they ARE POOR. at least outside the cities.
In my neighborhood, when I moved here, the greatest percentage of persons were first and second generation transplants from Tennessee and West Virginia.. Puerto Rican folks were tied with long term Anglo & Irish residents.
We were the easiest place to move to. Further south non-Black residents moved west. Mostly those folks have been pushed out by gentrification, or have assimilated with better jobs. but just after they moved we lost a lot of our industrialization.
But we STILL are a Mecca for transplants. And we are definately Rust Belt.
People do not move South for prosperity, or because of taxes. They move because they either have roots or want to find cheap or rural.
Glad that you are welcoming. Have fun with the more progressive attitudes that accompany transplants.
