[imtringued]

I don't see your argument. Texas improved it's economy by digging out the fossil fuels. It's not like they automatically get oil out of a natural spring and just have to fill up their tankers with it.

Building oil pumps doesn't matter if there is no oil to be pumped. Therefore having the economic viability to build oil pumps is a geographic advantage.

Building a canal doesn't matter if it doesn't let you reach the center of the continent. Therefore the economic viability to build a canal is a geographic advantage.

Building an irrigation system doesn't matter if you cannot control the irrigation. Therefore the economic viability to build a precise irrigation system is a geographic advantage.

Those investments would be completely worthless without the geographic advantage that is needed to optimally use them. Nails don't hammer themselves but without nails there is nothing to hammer. Yet you seem to be focusing on only one of those and implying that someone else's hammer is not a real hammer, they just found the nails already in place in the furniture.

[saalweachter]

I'm not denying that some states got lucky on natural resources or geography, I'm saying that some states have also invested local resources in developing their economy. They do this by levying taxes on the state and local level and building infrastructure.

SALT deductions incentivize states and localities to do this. They're still incentivizing this, since the deductions were only capped and not eliminated. Do you think states were over-incentivized to invest in their own infrastructure previously?