On 2011-09-08, at 12:07 PM, raghu wrote: > 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.
Sounds right to me, and suggests why European politicians and capitalists in the richer countries have had to to move incrementally and by stealth in pursuit of continental integration. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
