On Thu, Sep 8, 2011 at 3:53 AM, Gassler Robert <[email protected]> wrote: > 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. >
I seriously doubt a wealthy white hedge-fund manager in Connecticut feels some ethnic solidarity with your average white Alabaman or Mississippian. I think the answer to why wealthy blue state residents do not resent transfer payments to red states is simply that people do not realize that it is going on. If you ask California voters to pay a specific tax so payments can be sent to Alabama, you will see resentment similar to what you are seeing in Europe. The biggest benefit to fiscal union is that it disguises these types of subsidies. -raghu. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
