[lbo-talk] America's fiscal union

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Thu Sep 8 06:54:05 PDT 2011


On Sep 7, 2011, at 11:44 PM, SA wrote:


>> 3. Do the corporations based in the richer states which support these transfers have any interests other than maintaining these markets for their goods and services?
>>
>> It seems ironic that the states which most benefit from federal handouts consistently support the Republicans and are ideologically hostile to "Big Government", while the opposite is true for the richer states whose taxes are funnelled to the poorer states. But poor rural states and regions generally tend to be more conservative than more economically advanced ones with large urban working class populations.
>
> There just isn't any geographically based interest like this in the U.S. - it's not like in Europe.

Huh? The Rep party is heavily based in the south and mountain West. The coasts and upper midwest are pretty Dem. That division doesn't map perfectly onto a cut/spend conflict, but it's as close as we get to one in U.S. politics. (There's also the metro/stix division.)


> If you're looking for contradictions, why does the Chamber of Commerce not support a big stimulus package, since that would increase profits?

Don't want to create big bureaucracies, gov telling biz what to do, and a sense of entitlement among the working class.

Doug



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