The states, Justice Louis Brandeis famously wrote, are the laboratories of democracy. Different states try different policies and we can compare how well or poorly those work in practice.
See a New York Post article concerning four large and prominent states, two with high tax, high social spending policies and two with low. The high tax and spend states are NY and CA, the low tax and spend states are TX and FL.
The question the article addresses is the extent to which the policies pursued by NY and CA are doing a better job for their people. The answer is, of course, not at all.
Public school performance is equally dismal in all four, poverty is actually higher in the states spending more on it. If you subsidize something you normally get more of it.
Generally speaking, citizens of FL and TX are getting a much better return on their tax dollars, and guess what ... people and employers are moving from NY and CA to FL and TX. We’d be surprised if anything else happened.
The article has good charts comparing spending and results per pupil, spending per poor person, and infrastructure spending across the four states. Check it out. Hat tip to Lucianne.com for the link.
