One possible answer to the first question: Many people don't want to help those different from themselves. In Europe and elsewhere, differences are often based on geography: Flemings live in the north of Belgium, Wallonians in the South, for example. In the US, all ethnic groups live everywhere, though admittedly in differing proportions. Thus the wealthier mostly white Americans are perturbed by transfers to poor mostly nonwhite Americans. That may overwhelm regional resentment.
>An interesting chart... > >http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/08/americas-fiscal-union?page=2 > >I've got several questions about the United States, obviously prompted by the >eurozone debate over fiscal union: > >1. Why, unlike in Europe, are voters in wealthier US states like Minnesota, >New Jersey, Illinois, Connecticut and New York relatively unperturbed by >fiscal transfers to poorer states like Alabama, Mississippi, Montana, and West >Virginia? Has this always been the case, including during the American >constitutional debates of 1787-1793? > >2. Does the fiscal union impose spending discipline on the poorer states? Do >federal transfers come with strings attached, i.e. federal control over state >spending? > >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. >_______________________________________________ >pen-l mailing list >[email protected] >https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > > _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
