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[-] Akh@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago

Texas is a massive welfare state that lives on federal contracts

[-] wildncrazyguy138@fedia.io 4 points 2 weeks ago

You’re not wrong. Was looking at this for a different reason today. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_OECD_regions_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita

Texas is bolstered by their hill country tech sector, gulf port refineries and west Texas crude. The rest is a lot of prairie land and mountain ranges. What surprises me is that Texas has lower productivity per capita than Alaska (another oil rich, wide open spaces state), and Nebraska, which I can only assume one man is doing some very heavy lifting there.

Many of the more large-population liberal states have higher gdp, even with their typically higher taxes.

[-] protist@retrofed.com 2 points 2 weeks ago

This chart you shared identifies Texas as having the 44th highest GDP per capita out of every region in the entire world out of 454 regions, which is actually really good. It's especially good given how much rural land Texas includes, where an entire state's per capita GDP is being compared to much smaller urban regions like Luxembourg, Warsaw, and London.

[-] protist@retrofed.com 3 points 2 weeks ago

I live in Texas. I love where I live, and also fuck this place, but either way what you're saying just isn't true. Sure, there are a number of defense contractors plus NASA and military bases operating in Texas, but between energy, healthcare, education, tourism, tech, and over 50 Fortune 500 companies, Texas's economy is actually really diverse. California has a ton of military bases and defense contractors too, because like Texas they have the workforce to pull it off

[-] Akh@lemmy.world 0 points 1 week ago

You have no idea how much of all those industries you just named get corporate welfare or other federal grants. Texas is a net tax sink not payer to the federal government

[-] protist@retrofed.com 0 points 1 week ago

What is your evidence of this?

[-] Akh@lemmy.world 0 points 1 week ago

Rockefeller Institute of Government and analyses by the Tax Foundation. Texas consistently receives more in federal funding than it contributes in federal taxes. In 2023, for every dollar Texans paid to the federal government, the state received approximately $1.20 in return. This net inflow of federal dollars places Texas among the states that benefit most from federal redistribution.

[-] protist@retrofed.com 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Have a link to these? All the sources I see indicate Texas pays more in federal taxes than it receives back in aid

[-] W98BSoD@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 1 week ago

Not OP; here’s the most likely link.

https://rockinst.org/issue-areas/fiscal-analysis/balance-of-payments-portal/

And here is a screenshot of the relevant data

Texas clocks in at $1.21 receivers for every $1 sent to the federal government.

[-] protist@retrofed.com 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

According to this, all but 3 states receive more than they contribute, and Texas is roughly 17th out of 50 in terms of receiving the least amount back. I guess I don't understand how Texas could be singled out in a dataset like this

[-] W98BSoD@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 1 week ago

Because of how much Texas screams.

[-] protist@retrofed.com 0 points 1 week ago

Ok, and that has nothing to do with the original claim, which your data demonstrates was false

[-] W98BSoD@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 1 week ago

Point to where it shows the falseness

[-] protist@retrofed.com 0 points 1 week ago

This net inflow of federal dollars places Texas among the states that benefit most from federal redistribution.

Your data shows about 33 out of 50 states benefit more from federal redistribution than Texas does

[-] W98BSoD@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Ok, but we’re talking about Texas.

this post was submitted on 29 Mar 2026
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