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by enthalpyx 4844 days ago
Wealthier states do more global travel? It's expensive.
1 comments

Yeah, it's basically the reverse of http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/US_states... but they didn't mention that correlation for some reason.
There's a pretty good correlation with "states on the verge of bankruptcy", too.

Alaska being the outlier here.

take away alaska's enormous per-capita federal subsidies and they'd be dead in a heartbeat.
Give Alaska back the vast majority of its land and resources (something like 80-90% of the land is outright owned by the Feds, and they restrict access to vast amounts of state land, using environmental reasons as the excuse) which are owned or controlled by the federal government and we'd be self-sufficient in a heartbeat, even if we aren't already.

I seriously doubt your characterization of our Federal subsidies. Just as one example, Hawaii gets more interstate highway funds then we do, and we're responsible for the Alcan highway, one of the largest highways in the nation. Hawaii, as you might notice, has no interstate highways. We aren't heavily subsidized, as we have more than enough revenue from the oil leases on the North Slope.

If every state was left to its own devices (just a thought experiment here), Alaska would be one of the best situated due to is vast resources, active port (air cargo in particular uses Anchorage's facilities in huge amounts), and economic stability.

/rant