Being in a donor state
Apparently, if you're going to post a poll, you have to post it before you put in the content that leads up to it.
To restate what I had written before my poll-writing ate my post, something that bugs me from time to time is the way that California and New York get shafted in the national arena. It's natural for the more prosperous states to give more than they get. I'm not complaining about that. That would be stupid. It would be unacceptable for each state to get proportionately what they give to the country -- it would result in the poorest and most rural states having nothing much worth having but their own natural beauty and folklife, which is small consolation when you're starving and you have no infrastructure. This would not benefit California or New York in any way. We're all part of the same country (this reasoning also applies to the world, but the rest of this does not, since the prosperous nations are not getting world treatment that is analogous to the treatment California and New York get in the US).
The thing that pisses me off is the active hostility that politicians cultivate towards California and New York (and other urban, urbane, productive states). They go out of their way to harm us in small ways and large ones. They slander us.
They cultivate rifts between us and other states which share some of our interests. They routinely short us funding and kill projects which might somehow aid us. In pre-election times, they hit up our state for fundraisers and then don't even bother to promise us anything in return. The Calitics blog is monitoring this and raising the discussion.
Just for curiosity's sake I checked out Homeland Security funding by state, and I lucked into a listing. Following is the poll I made -- look up the answers after you've made your guesses, okay? Or in the middle or something. The link to the site is at the end of the poll, just to help you be honest.
Poll Which states get the least and most Homeland Security Money?
Now that you've done the poll, go see the answers on this cool interactive map which will tell you how much per capita all the states get.
To restate what I had written before my poll-writing ate my post, something that bugs me from time to time is the way that California and New York get shafted in the national arena. It's natural for the more prosperous states to give more than they get. I'm not complaining about that. That would be stupid. It would be unacceptable for each state to get proportionately what they give to the country -- it would result in the poorest and most rural states having nothing much worth having but their own natural beauty and folklife, which is small consolation when you're starving and you have no infrastructure. This would not benefit California or New York in any way. We're all part of the same country (this reasoning also applies to the world, but the rest of this does not, since the prosperous nations are not getting world treatment that is analogous to the treatment California and New York get in the US).
The thing that pisses me off is the active hostility that politicians cultivate towards California and New York (and other urban, urbane, productive states). They go out of their way to harm us in small ways and large ones. They slander us.
They cultivate rifts between us and other states which share some of our interests. They routinely short us funding and kill projects which might somehow aid us. In pre-election times, they hit up our state for fundraisers and then don't even bother to promise us anything in return. The Calitics blog is monitoring this and raising the discussion.
Just for curiosity's sake I checked out Homeland Security funding by state, and I lucked into a listing. Following is the poll I made -- look up the answers after you've made your guesses, okay? Or in the middle or something. The link to the site is at the end of the poll, just to help you be honest.
Poll Which states get the least and most Homeland Security Money?
Now that you've done the poll, go see the answers on this cool interactive map which will tell you how much per capita all the states get.