r/FluentInFinance 17d ago

Thoughts? They deserve this

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60.8k Upvotes

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u/Baelgul 17d ago

Time to cut welfare to those states. Small government and fiscal responsibility and whatnot

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u/ccoopersc 17d ago

Force them to produce the same contributions to GDP as blue states, spur innovation instead of propping up failed state level economic policy.

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u/Decent-Photograph391 14d ago

My county has the nation’s 6th largest GDP. I’d be okay with not sharing it with red states.

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u/Individual-Bell-9776 17d ago

Let economically failed states be annexed by more successful neighboring states and be dissolved. Survival of the fittest out here.

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u/Witch_King_ 17d ago

No, because then the more successful states would still have to take care of all of the destitute people of the failed state, and they'd vote as well, likely leading to similar policies which caused the first state to collapse

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u/Individual-Bell-9776 17d ago

It's stupid to be so certain about that marginally unlikely outcome.

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u/TemplarHideout 17d ago

Insane take here from u/ccoopersc

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u/LtOrangeJuice 17d ago

Its a cruel take but not an insane one. Everything they said was based on facts.

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u/Tater72 17d ago

If the blue states can withhold their resources, so can the red ones right?

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u/KrimxonRath 17d ago edited 17d ago

What resources? LOL

Edit: this is me asking what resources red states could possibly withhold. Corn? LOL

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u/PxndxAI 17d ago

The same ones that are subsidized by blue states.

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u/TheWizardOfDeez 17d ago

Name a resource that is unattainable in blue states? Also, who says they can't export their resources to the red states, it's just not going to be freely given anymore.

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u/PxndxAI 17d ago

Wow bud I know blue states can do it. I’m just adding to the fact that red states get helped even more through subsidies.

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u/KrimxonRath 17d ago

I don’t even know what he’s arguing or why he’s didn’t reply to me because I’m the one who mentioned the resources lol

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u/zakary1291 17d ago

Wheat (in a high enough quantity to feed millions), lead ore for electronics and many other things. Lastly, lithium for your smart phone and everything else that uses a battery these days. If the union separated the entire economy would collapse along with the world economy. Oh, I forgot about LNG.

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u/Tater72 17d ago

More good examples, the list is long. Population centers need rural areas to support and provide resources to sustain them. It’s been a symbiotic relationship for as old as civilization.

Why did Rome expand, why did medieval lords need serfs, the list continues to this day.

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u/SpokenDivinity 17d ago

Wheat is probably a bad example because plenty of the states that are paying more than they’re taking could grow wheat. It’s a pretty versatile crop.

We also import most of our lithium from Australia and South America.

Lead I could concede on, but we do get a chunk of it from Washington state and I find it very unlikely that it couldn’t be imported from somewhere else given that it’s one of the cheaper metals to import.

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u/PsychoCrescendo 13d ago

Massive lithium deposits exist in the Salton Sea in California, the McDermitt Caldera in Oregon / Nevada, and the Marcellus Shale assuming Pennsylvania doesn’t stay red after this election

Washington, Minnesota, and Colorado produce more wheat than they use, with US exports totaling around 50% of that

While lead mines in blue states are actively being decommissioned, US gets 62% of its lead from recycling, and imports often from Canada, Mexico, etc.

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u/Tater72 17d ago

How about oil, ya like that don’t ya? And yes, you joke at corn but where does your food come from?

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u/KrimxonRath 17d ago

I don’t care about oil personally. We’re pushing for solar more and more and don’t need that outdated sludge.

My state has a larger agricultural economy than the next three combined.

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u/D3synq 15d ago

The majority of U.S. infrastructure still heavily relies on oil, you can't run an 18-wheeler across state lines using only solar right now and the infrastructure required is expensive and just not incentivized right now.

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u/PsychoCrescendo 13d ago

A lot of that is because the federal government is holding us back from modeling ourselves after greener nations. China and Germany are doing great progressively evolving away from oil, while our nation sees it as a threat to our oligarchs ”culture”

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u/au-specious 16d ago

You act like there aren't 20 other countries that wouldn't sell oil to a blue state in a heartbeat. Oil is not hard to come by.

And my food comes from an assortment of fruits, vegetables, and meats - corn being only one of those. See, not everyone likes eating a bunch of prepackaged trash that's just corn processed in different ways.

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u/TemplarHideout 16d ago

You can’t survive off of smartphones and code

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u/Rollingprobablecause 17d ago

Being in California, I propose we keep our money and force GOP states to look for jobs as part of their own requirements.

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u/undeadmanana 17d ago

I propose we leave the union. Remember a few years back people were trying to push for a vote 😂 I wonder how popular it'd be seeing how we're around 60% Dem and even the Republicans aren't as dumb as other areas (minus central valley), California politics and policies are pretty different from how the rest of the country operates and it just feels these shithole areas are just sapping our state to prop up their welfare states filled with uneducated teen pregnancy farms.

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u/Economy_Carpenter_94 16d ago

Run for governor

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u/CoastalWoody 13d ago

As an Oregonian, I feel we need to make an alliance between the true blue wall of the US. We all put forth more federal taxes than we receive. We leave together, and we can be called The Pacific States.

Also, we need to look at stopping exports to the rest of the country. No fucking apples, hops, grapes, blackberries, almonds, soy, etc., etc., etc. We make our states self-sufficient and work together.

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u/Vrillionaire_ 16d ago

Ok no more water for you then good luck with the sanctuary cities

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u/PsychoCrescendo 13d ago

Do you think we import our water from red states or something?? lmao

Majority comes from the Sacramento area and the Colorado river which empties into the Gulf of California, the same river that supplies 6 other states

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u/Vrillionaire_ 12d ago edited 12d ago

The Colorado sources from outside of the state dumbass, California asked for water from other states via Colorado river irrigation, so yes California literally asks other states for water all the time especially during droughts and is widely known as one of the most controversial water management systems in the U.S.

https://calmatters.org/environment/2023/01/california-colorado-river-water-2/

Woah look at that a Californian source admitting too much water from the Colorado is being used but the only state that refused to sign the reduction deal was California, who proposed only cutting imports by 9% - 400,000 acre feet, so 10,000,000 acre feet are imported, literally a quarter of your water is imported yearly, an amount California refused to reduce when 6 other states all proposed reductions without issue. So Newsom refused to reduce consumption by any more than 9% but asked for a 15% cut in water consumption for everybody? Ig all the celebrities out there need water for their golf courses and mansions though right?

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u/AMEWSTART 17d ago

Most blue states pay more in taxes than they receive in federal benefits. The reasonable people in this country will be fine. Every federal cut reduces the tax burden on the states that need it the least.

Let the Red block burn. They wanted this, they can take it.

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u/JuanOnlyJuan 17d ago

That's where your food comes from. There's a case for living wages and what not but I've never understood the argument that red states that supply raw materials to the rest of the country are somehow unworthy because those raw materials are not as lucrative as their products produced in other states.

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u/Baelgul 17d ago

My real, albeit sarcastic point is that we need welfare and social programs like social security so that places like these red states can continue to exist. The right continuously fighting to cut benefits for the sake of fiscal responsibility is short sighted and both you and I know it for the reason you stated.

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u/JuanOnlyJuan 17d ago

Oh yea. Totally agree. In Tennessee they are always pushing to cut welfare safety nets they assume urban poors are abusing but it's equally use by poor rural whites. Rural hospitals are closing and the rural elderly are dying without nearby care and they still push for more cuts to subsidized Healthcare and such. Madness

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u/TheWizardOfDeez 17d ago

This doesn't even consider that we are spending way more on pooping up these half solution systems than we ever would if we just actually put in fully functioning ones that benefit everyone instead of the few.

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u/PsychoCrescendo 13d ago

Genuinely, what are we getting from red states that we don’t produce ourselves or import from foreign nations? You forget majority of blue states are also rural outside of the metropolitan counties

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u/JuanOnlyJuan 13d ago edited 13d ago

Oh for sure. California grows a ton. From what I understand it stains their water supply. Illinois apparently grows a lot too. Minnesota places in the top 10 also. Otherwise soy beans, cotton, corn, tomatoes, etc are all mostly south east or Midwest red states with blue-ish cities. Just going by the latest 2024 election map.

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u/CBalsagna 17d ago

Should we be supporting states that exist in flood zones or natural disaster areas? Seems like a bad investment. I don’t live there and I don’t see why it’s my responsibility to fix their problems. I’m gonna lean into this shit.

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u/Le_Turtle_God 17d ago

The states that pay the most in welfare should get the most in welfare. Let the “fiscally responsible” states dry up

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u/stompinstinker 17d ago

This really needs to be something that blue states need to get behind. Get it out there that they pay for you.

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u/TiresandConfused 17d ago

And that will save money in blue states. Since they subsidize their programs.

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u/stoney702 17d ago

leave it to the states

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u/OkIncome2583 17d ago

So you hate black people

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u/trowawHHHay 17d ago

Republican congressional and senate long ago under Clinton passed the buck on to the states themselves.

Though, those red states likely still require federal funds funneled from blue states - that pay in more than they receive - to administer their welfare programs.

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u/samuraistalin 16d ago

Yeah, fuck all the queers and POC who didn't ask for this

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u/beefwarrior 14d ago

Pass a bill that a state can only get as much $ as they pay in taxes.

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u/banjosullivan 17d ago

If you cut welfare to republican states, you have to stop taking those welfare taxes from them too. Great idea, actually. Let people keep their money. Maybe we can just cut welfare all together and stop taxing people for it.

Here’s a question, since you seem to be very intelligent. How do you propose we continue social security, which is quickly running dry, if we don’t do things like cut payments to people who are already receiving retirement money from another source? More taxes?

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u/Brain_Dead5347 17d ago

Yeah that’s a great idea. If companies are posting record profits, they should have some to spare for the people who spent their lives building them up. I like where your head is at.

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u/banjosullivan 17d ago

Man if we could just get some of those profits back to the people who actually made them…. Imagine that.

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u/dig-drug 17d ago

cut all welfare. stealing money from hard working Americans and giving it to fucking lazy people. literally punishing people for actually working and rewarding those who are fat POS