The Geography of Government Benefits - interactive map from the NY Times

[Scuba]

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/02/12/us/entitlement-map.html?ref=us


Perhaps what we should do is inform the most conservative areas of the country about their reliance on government programs. Or maybe we should just let them gut those programs and stop supporting them until they wise up.

[lacrew]

1. I'd rather see a map, based on population density, rather than county boundaries

As an example, Bronx Co. NY is hardly visible, without zooming in...but has a population of of 1.4 million...and Mohave County, AZ (which shows up as a huge area) has just 200k people.

So...I can't look at this map and make any conclsusions which I could use in an argument.

Also, I noticed that Riley County, KS has a very low rating...but FT Riley is there. So, this map doesn't count all federal spending, just entitlement programs...but it would be informative to include federal dollars spent on military bases in this type of discussion.

[Scuba]

2. Good point about all federal spending, except that isn't the purpose of the graphic....

... which is to show how we all rely on "benefit programs, like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security". While we all rely on federal highway money, military bases and such, a lot of federal money goes to programs which only benefit a few (e.g., oil subsidies).

As for the county size issue, that must be why they included a zooming feature.

[lacrew]

3. But I can still draw no conclusions from the map

"As for the county size issue, that must be why they included a zooming feature"

Similar maps show up after each presidential election, covered in Red, with small pockets of blue...giving the impression that most of the nation voted red. They are useless for drawing any conclusions. Therefore, maps are produced which stretch the national map, based on population. Here is an example: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/2008/

I can't take this NYT map, and show it to somebody from Idaho, and say 'see, you get more benefits than New Yorkers'...without doing alot of manual checking....and discovering that the Bronx alone, and Idaho have similar populations.

[mikekohr]

4. The map includes per capita payments for entitlement programs

the big differance in percentages of total income comes as a result of higher average incomes in metro areas. Rural areas are more dependant because their economies are not as robust, more stable perhaps, but at a significantly lower level. And living in a rural county in North Central Illinois I am not reluctant to admit the truth. Many here in our county of Bureau like to point fingers at Cook County as leaches dependant on Federal dollars. The record is somewhat differant than the heated rhetoric.

National Average: 17.6% of all income comes from government benefits
Lee County: 22.41% or $7586 per capita
LaSalle County: 20.63% or $7315 per capita
Bureau County: 20.36% or $7378 per capita
Henry County: 19.76% or $7013 per capita
Marshall County: 19.58% or $7735 per capita
Peoria County: 17.18% or $7315 per capita
Cook County: 15.61% or $7441 per capita



http://bureaucountydems.blogspot.com/2012/03/geography-of-government-benefits.html