California (and New York, Texas, Illinois, Florida, etc) would be fine without subsidizing other states. In fact, they would probably be better off. When places become difficult to live in, people tend to move to better places. We spend money trying to make unproductive places viable places to live when that money would be used more efficiently in states with better infrastructure, both human and physical. The more people who move away from subsidized places, the more money they will make on average, and the more iPods will be sold.
Humans agglomerate because it makes us more productive. By subsidizing dying towns in the middle of nowhere (and Michigan), we're paying people to be less productive. I don't care where people choose to live, but I shouldn't have to pay for their choices.
Even if it were in the self-interest of productive places to subsidize non-productive places, our current method of doing so isn't the best approach. There are greater gains in productivity to be had for less money in Mexico, which would create wealthier neighbors for us to sell things to. This is simply another case of the tendency of majorities (which in the US may only be electoral, not real majorities) in democracies to take what they can from the minorities.
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California (and New York, Texas, Illinois, Florida, etc) would be fine without subsidizing other states. In fact, they would probably be better off. When places become difficult to live in, people tend to move to better places. We spend money trying to make unproductive places viable places to live when that money would be used more efficiently in states with better infrastructure, both human and physical. The more people who move away from subsidized places, the more money they will make on average, and the more iPods will be sold.
Humans agglomerate because it makes us more productive. By subsidizing dying towns in the middle of nowhere (and Michigan), we're paying people to be less productive. I don't care where people choose to live, but I shouldn't have to pay for their choices.
Even if it were in the self-interest of productive places to subsidize non-productive places, our current method of doing so isn't the best approach. There are greater gains in productivity to be had for less money in Mexico, which would create wealthier neighbors for us to sell things to. This is simply another case of the tendency of majorities (which in the US may only be electoral, not real majorities) in democracies to take what they can from the minorities.