Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall, Which State Provides the Most Handouts of All?

October 17, 2023 by Dan Mitchell @ International Liberty

Back in 2010, I put together a “Moocher Index” based on the percentage of non-poor people in each state getting government handouts.

Based on that back-of-the-envelope calculation, Vermont, Mississippi, and Maine were the biggest moocher states and Nevada, Colorado, and Arizona were the most self-reliant states.

Then, in 2013, I shared some data looking at the value of welfare benefits in each state, compared to both the median wage and to the federal poverty rate.

Sadly, those numbers showed it was more lucrative in many states (especially in the Northeast and Hawaii) to live off the government rather than work.

Today, let’s look at which states are the most generous with handouts. The Committee to Unleash Prosperity shared this table yesterday, which ranks states based on the level of per-capita spending on public welfare.

The folks at CTUP highlighted California and Florida. Since I usually do New York-vs-Florida and California-vs-Texas comparisons, I added a couple more numbers.

P.S. Looking at the above numbers, keep in mind that there is a Laffer Curve-type relationship between redistribution spending and the poverty rate. So states like Florida and Texas presumably are reducing poverty while states such as New York and California are subsidizing it.

P.P.S. Compared to other industrialized nations, the United States has a relatively low level of welfare spending.