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   Why are Red State Citizens Poorer, Less Educated, & Sicker than Blue State   
   Citizens? Republicans worship cheap labor — and having a steady and   
   reliable supply of cheap labor requires widespread poverty… Thom Hartmann   
      
      
   One of the enduring mysteries of America is why the citizens of Red states   
   are generally poorer, less educated, and sicker than the citizens of Blue   
   states. To that question, I step up as your hierophant with an answer to   
   this deep mystery that you may not have previously considered.   
      
   First, that generalization is broadly true:   
      
   — Blue states account for about 71 percent of America’s GDP, whereas Red   
   states only produce 29 percent of our income and wealth. — The median   
   family income in Blue states is $74,243. In Red states it’s $63,553.   
   Individual states highlight the disparity: New Jersey’s median income is   
   $89,703, while Mississippi’s is $49,111. — Counties that voted for Biden   
   in 2020 are more diverse, being 35 percent nonwhite compared to 16 percent   
   nonwhite populations in counties that voted for Trump. — Counties that   
   voted for Biden in 2020 are better educated, with 36 percent of their   
   population having some college education compared to Trump’s counties at   
   25 percent. — Residents of Blue states live 2.2 years longer, on average,   
   than residents of Red states.   
      
   And, second, it’s undeniably true (and documented with each hotlink below)   
   that Republican-controlled Red states, almost across the board, have   
   higher rates of:   
      
   — Spousal abuse   
   — Obesity   
   — Smoking   
   — Teen pregnancy   
   — Sexually transmitted diseases   
   — Abortion (at least before Dobbs; now it would be “forced births”)   
   — Bankruptcies and poverty   
   — Homicide and suicide   
   — Infant mortality   
   — Maternal mortality   
   — Forcible rape   
   — Robbery and aggravated assault   
   — Dropouts from high school   
   — Divorce   
   — Contaminated air and water   
   — Opiate addiction and deaths   
   — Unskilled workers   
   — Parasitic infections   
   — Income and wealth inequality   
   — Covid deaths and unvaccinated people   
   — Federal subsidies to states (“Red State Welfare”)   
   — People on welfare   
   — Child poverty   
   — Homelessness   
   — Spousal murder   
   — Unemployment   
   — Deaths from auto accidents   
   — People living on disability   
   — Gun deaths   
      
   But are all these things happening because Republicans simply hate their   
   citizens and explicitly want high levels of poverty, ignorance, death, and   
   disease?   
      
   Turns out there’s a much simpler answer.   
      
   The problem for Red states is that Republicans worship cheap labor,   
   because it drives up profits for the fat-cats who own American businesses   
   — and having a steady and reliable supply of cheap labor to maintain high   
   profits requires widespread poverty, ignorance, death, and disease.   
      
   That poverty, of course, brings along with it the long list of social ills   
   above, but Republicans are more than willing to tolerate massive,   
   desperate levels of human suffering to make sure there’s a steady supply   
   of cheap labor. In fact, they intentionally run their states that way to   
   produce those results.   
      
   If you have any doubts about this, if that sounds like hyperbole, simply   
   look at the policies the GOP has promoted for the past century:   
      
   — Republicans hate unions, because unions raise wages and benefits for   
   workers, shifting them from poverty into the middle class. Once thus   
   empowered, those uppity middle-class people then start to demand   
   “unreasonable” things like overtime pay (Project 2025 would functionally   
   end it), healthcare, paid vacations, paid sick leave, and paid family   
   leave.   
      
   — Republicans hate Social Security and have worked to gut, privatize, or   
   outright end it ever since FDR signed it into law in 1935. They do this   
   because elderly workers in poverty are a great source of compliant, cheap   
   labor. Reagan’s changes in Social Security benefits have led to millions   
   of Boomers having to take gigs as greeters, waiters, etc., for low wages;   
   prior to Reagan’s changes in the Cost of Living Adjustments (COLAs) and   
   his raising the retirement age to 67, you could safely retire on Social   
   Security in most parts of America. Now, Republicans want to raise that age   
   to 69 or 70.   
      
   — Republicans hate universal or inexpensive healthcare (and real Medicare   
   for the elderly) because having massive medical debt provides a large pool   
   of desperate workers willing to work crappy jobs for pathetic wages to pay   
   it off. It’s why the ten states that refuse to expand Medicaid for   
   low-income workers are all Republican-controlled.  Medical debt is a   
   non-issue in every other developed country in the world, but here in   
   America 79 million people are struggling to pay off doctors’ or hospital   
   bills (7 million of those debtors are elderly, many the victims of the   
   Medicare Advantage scam).   
      
   — Republicans hate the minimum wage because it cuts into profits. That’s   
   why the minimum wage in Blue states can be more than twice that of Red   
   states (Washington State is $17/hr versus Texas’ $7.25/hr). When most   
   families are barely earning enough to get by, employers have their pick of   
   distraught, panicked workers willing to work for subsistence wages.   
      
   — Republicans hate empowered women because forced pregnancies create more   
   potential workers and unwanted children exacerbate poverty. Thus their 50+   
   years of opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment and their embrace of   
   abortion bans.   
      
   — Republicans promote hatred of racial, religious, and gender minorities   
   because when Americans are at each other’s throats they’re not organizing   
   to throw off the GOP/corporate yoke. It’s hard to remember that the   
   billionaires have stolen fully $50 trillion from the middle class over the   
   past 43 years of the Reagan Revolution when you’re constantly distracted   
   with hysteria about Black Haitians, Brown Mexicans, and trans students who   
   just want to use the damn bathroom.   
      
   — Republicans hate education because it’s the main tool for people to lift   
   themselves out of poverty and thus demand higher wages and better   
   benefits. Before the Reagan Revolution, every American who wanted to and   
   could pass the entrance exams could go to college; many universities (like   
   the entire University of California system) were free, and you could pay   
   your tuition at most other colleges like I did in the 1960s working   
   weekends as a dishwasher at Bob’s Big Boy in East Lansing, Michigan and   
   pumping gas at the Esso station across the street. This is also why so   
   many Red states are gutting their public education systems with private   
   school vouchers. Less education, more poverty; more poverty, more cheap   
   labor.   
      
   — Republicans hate atheism and embrace a neofascist form of Protestant   
   Christianity and a bizarre, rightwing version of Catholicism that goes by   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)