this post was submitted on 29 Mar 2026
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Texas is a massive welfare state that lives on federal contracts
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.
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.
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.
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
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
For people who don’t continue down the thread, here is the proof suggested by another user and found by me:
https://rockinst.org/issue-areas/fiscal-analysis/balance-of-payments-portal/
NJ low-key goated as usual
I think this is the first time I've ever heard NJ described as goated in my life. Thank you for the experience!
That's why it's low-key.
Meanwhile WA and NH are just getting their money back
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. This definitively shows Texas is not among the states receiving the most federal dollars in return for what they pay
I lived in Texas for 30 years, I left 10 years ago and have no desire to go back. Apart from texmex klobasnek and a few other things, I don’t miss it at all.
I think people underestimate the differences between living in a deep red state vs a deep blue state.
It's like night and day. I would never voluntarily step foot in a red state again for the rest of my life if I don't need to.
Fuckin hell growing up in ohio it was a swing state, and I remember watching it slowly get worse and worse before I left for the PNW. The busses come with reasonable frequency here, and they even go to suburbs beyond a single commuter bus. Portland and Seattle both even have light rail systems (Columbus adamantly rejects the premise of building a fucking train, despite being quite blue). When I was unemployed they didn't care that I had savings when I applied for medicaid, just that I wasn't earning too much in interest on them to qualify (ohio rejected me for having less money in savings). There are still problems and bigots and I don't love everything about here, but I feel safe and I feel like this place actually is attempting to improve while Ohio just kinda started giving up when manufacturing went away and is convinced that trying to improve things will only make them worse, which the state legislature has fostered.
I’m in a pretty purple state now, there isn’t a blue state that really interests me in moving too. Far too many of them have unreasonable taxes or bad weather or both. And they few outliers like Oregon and Washington are too expensive for me to attempt to move to.
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
What is your evidence of this?
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.
Have a link to these? All the sources I see indicate Texas pays more in federal taxes than it receives back in aid
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.
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
Because of how much Texas screams.
Ok, and that has nothing to do with the original claim, which your data demonstrates was false