Biden wins counties equalling 70%+ of US GDP

[fskimospy]

Interesting corollary to the popular vote is that the economic divide continues to expand. As of right now Biden is winning counties worth 70% of US GDP as compared to 29% for Trump. In addition, the largest Trump county, Nassau in NY, will very likely flip Biden by the end, taking totals even farther apart.

Biden-voting counties equal 70% of America's economy. What does this mean for the nation's political-economic divide? | Brookings

This economic rift that persists in dividing the nation is a problem because it underscores the near-certainty of both continued clashes between the political parties and continued alienation and misunderstandings.

www.brookings.edu

I think this has some pretty dire implications going forward. It’s not just that the US is afflicted by the threat of minority rule from a population perspective, it’s that the dynamic areas of the economy are being increasingly dominated by the failing ones.

This isn’t to say that people who are struggling to compete shouldn’t have a say or should have a lesser say, but it’s not a healthy place for our society when it’s the other way around - that the driving economic forces of the country have a lesser say. By a lot.

 

[thilanliyan]

He's such an elitist!! 😀

 

[Vic]

But.. the conservative narrative that liberals are all unemployed and living on welfare..

 

[pete6032]

But.. the conservative narrative that liberals are all unemployed and living on welfare..

Plus even the ones that are employed don't have real salt of the earth jobs like farmers or auto workers.

 

[fskimospy]

But.. the conservative narrative that liberals are all unemployed and living on welfare..

It has always annoyed me that the areas utterly dependent on money given to them from more liberal areas not only do not appear to realize this, they seem to think it’s the other way around.

 

[brycejones]

But Trump won more land area.

 

[dank69]

My favorite series of comments on this image:

Let them eat their money while the red states eat food.

Or buy food from other countries? Have fun wearing some corn shoes and typing angry emails on a cucumber.

 

[Thump553]

That's a whole lot more meaningful stat than the GOP controls the vast percentage of land area in the USA, which gets repeated over and over.

 

[WelshBloke]

Just posting the infograffic from that article as it sums the issue up very clearly!

 

[brycejones]

Just posting the infograffic from that article as it sums the issue up very clearly!

View attachment 33614

I can't wait for the lawsuit pointing out this is an obvious sign of election fraud since Trump won the most counties he should be President again.

 

[vi edit]

Yeah I read this yesterday too. I *knew* this was likely the case. But I never had it laid out quite like that. It really does flip the script on the map of red that some like to hang on the refrigerator.

 

[WelshBloke]

That's a whole lot more meaningful stat than the GOP controls the vast percentage of land area in the USA, which gets repeated over and over.

Combine the two and work out what an a plot of land contributes to the economy over the country. That would make the difference even more stark as that 29% would be really spread out compared to the 70% being concentrated in a smaller area.

 

[Vic]

It has always annoyed me that the areas utterly dependent on money given to them from more liberal areas not only do not appear to realize this, they seem to think it’s the other way around.

Now that I work remote, something I don't miss from my daily commute was all the battered pickups driving into the city from the sticks with "Peoples Republic of Portland" bumper stickers on them. Somehow, the irony that they had to drive into our "communist utopia" in order to find work was perpetually lost on that crowd.

 

[Fenixgoon]

So maybe this is the multi-million/billion dollar question...but how do you sell these people on the fact that Democrats actually give a rats ass about them?
Targeted infrastructure investments? (Solar/wind)
Loans/grants for new and more efficient farming or equipment?
And I don't doubt that many of these things already exist in some form (e.g. rural broadband fund), but it needs to be more of an in-your-face kind of thing.

 

[herm0016]

it will be interesting to see how remote work changes this as well. will the country become less divided on an area basis? Many that we know that have transitioned to remote work are moving to places like Wisconsin, Montana, rural Minnesota etc. to take advantage of the lower cost of living. Google is saying they will adjust your salary to cola if you move away from places like Boulder, co or the bay area.
I would like to see it in shades of purple, or maybe a diagram that uses GDP per capita instead of raw GDP?

If you want a national popular vote, you should start by realizing that a red county does not mean everyone voted for R and a blue one that everyone voted for D.

corn shoes? i'm sure china will still sell to whoever.

I say end all subsidies for everything. you will then see what it really costs for a gallon of gas, a bag of potato's and a dozen eggs. it is not the prices you pay now. we are breaking even around 5 bucks a dozen for the eggs we produce, admittedly not at a huge scale. our garden / greenhouse produces food year round but it probably does not really save us much money, i bet the payback for infrastructure/equipment is crazy long. Rabbit is, on the other hand, cheap to produce as they eat around 80% grass hay and 20% commercial feed, also very sustainable as they are vegetarians and their waste can be directly used as fertilizer, unlike the chickens.

anyway... getting off topic.

@Fenixgoon It certainly is not by further alienating them by telling them they are all worthless pieces of shit and useless, while out in the field, in a factory, producing raw materials for the things manufactured in a city, etc. Maybe the narrative needs to change to one of value of the contribution to society.

my truck has dents, tows a trailer, sometimes there is even a old tractor on it. It's full of those things you call tools that do work. I must be useless. making sure I know I am totally useless to your society is a sure fire way for me to come and learn more about your values.

 

[vi edit]

it will be interesting to see how remote work changes this as well. will the country become less divided on an area basis? Many that we know that have transitioned to remote work are moving to places like Wisconsin, Montana, rural Minnesota etc. to take advantage of the lower cost of living. Google is saying they will adjust your salary to cola if you move away from places like Boulder, co or the bay area.
I would like to see it in shades of purple, or maybe a diagram that uses GDP per capita instead of raw GDP?

Tele-work will make tiny changes on their own. What is more important is how some metro areas position themselves. There are some "Red state" metro areas that can offer pretty significant quality of life changes to single person who is living in a super expensive coastal city. Look at Boise's growth pulling in millennials and building up their downtown areas. They are creating a work environment there that is way cheaper than California, offers a ton of recreational things near by, the weather isn't terrible, and they have an active hand in controlling the cities future. OK City did a similar transition making a push to be a a much more desirable place to live/work. You have others out there. Austin was probably the blue print. More are following.

I don't think you'll see a coastal to rural shift was much as coastal to up and coming, cheaper to live metro in red/rural state.

 

[fskimospy]

So maybe this is the multi-million/billion dollar question...but how do you sell these people on the fact that Democrats actually give a rats ass about them?
Targeted infrastructure investments? (Solar/wind)
Loans/grants for new and more efficient farming or equipment?
And I don't doubt that many of these things already exist in some form (e.g. rural broadband fund), but it needs to be more of an in-your-face kind of thing.

While I think we should care about them and we should message this to them to be honest I view this as more of an indictment of our political system.

We shouldn’t change our system to allocate power based on GDP but this should be a wake up call to people about just how broken our system is. Why are we putting the least populous, least productive aspects of our society in a position of dominance?

 

[fskimospy]

it will be interesting to see how remote work changes this as well. will the country become less divided on an area basis? Many that we know that have transitioned to remote work are moving to places like Wisconsin, Montana, rural Minnesota etc. to take advantage of the lower cost of living. Google is saying they will adjust your salary to cola if you move away from places like Boulder, co or the bay area.
I would like to see it in shades of purple, or maybe a diagram that uses GDP per capita instead of raw GDP?

If you want a national popular vote, you should start by realizing that a red county does not mean everyone voted for R and a blue one that everyone voted for D.

corn shoes? i'm sure china will still sell to whoever.

I say end all subsidies for everything. you will then see what it really costs for a gallon of gas, a bag of potato's and a dozen eggs. it is not the prices you pay now. we are breaking even around 5 bucks a dozen for the eggs we produce, admittedly not at a huge scale. our garden / greenhouse produces food year round but it probably does not really save us much money, i bet the payback for infrastructure/equipment is crazy long. Rabbit is, on the other hand, cheap to produce as they eat around 80% grass hay and 20% commercial feed, also very sustainable as they are vegetarians and their waste can be directly used as fertilizer, unlike the chickens.

anyway... getting off topic.

@Fenixgoon It certainly is not by further alienating them by telling them they are all worthless pieces of shit and useless, while out in the field, in a factory, producing raw materials for the things manufactured in a city, etc. Maybe the narrative needs to change to one of value of the contribution to society.

my truck has dents, tows a trailer, sometimes there is even a old tractor on it. It's full of those things you call tools that do work. I must be useless. making sure I know I am totally useless to your society is a sure fire way for me to come and learn more about your values.

As the percentage of GDP is significantly higher than the percentage of votes Biden got the GDP per capita of those counties would be significantly higher than average.

Nobody is saying what you do is useless at all, work that’s done in rural areas is vital to the functioning of the country. My point is that the work done in cities is vital as well and there’s no reason to disadvantage them.

 

[herm0016]

My point is that the work done in cities is vital as well and there’s no reason to disadvantage them.

how is that happening exactly? what is the disadvantage? certainly, if there was an advantage to rural areas they would have a greater gdp per capita?

LA county has more people than 43 of our 50 states. they will have different needs and different values than someone on a cattle ranch in Wyoming. What people here see when there is talk about making the senate have a population allocation, or a national popular vote is that the dense areas believe they know better what the rancher needs from the government than the rancher does. Those things include making it more difficult and expensive for the rancher to replace or maintain equipment via regulations that embolden manufactures to restrict access to repair, making it more difficult and expensive to use the water on his land via cities claiming more and more rights to the water that flows through and lands on it, making it more difficult and expensive to run the business via taxes and regulations, buy feed because all the business can afford is high yield non organic stuff, transport the cattle to market on trucks that are more and more expensive to maintain, register, etc. and a government that wants to control the price of his product to feed those in the city increasing the cost to do business. they do get some government grant or whatever here and there, but truly the only people that can afford to manage that process and win are the large corps based in the urban centers with office buildings, and the process has been designed for them to be the winners.

I live in a tiny microbubble and see these kinds of interactions every day. I see them protesting meat and gmo crops, calling for prosecution and jail time for my majority brown coworkers for contributing to climate change by working in the oil industry. while they must have the newest escalade and range rover in the garage of the 5000 sq ft house and a gas fireplace in every room. I also see them keep the real-estate prices in boulder crazy high, restrict parking, restrict # of people in a house to less than the # of bedrooms, and give false info to a group trying to change it so that they don't make it on the ballot, call for a tax on parking spaces at businesses if they employ someone that is living out side the city limits which is 99% white. increase the sales tax, including on food!!! so that they may spend millions on lawyers wondering if the city should recognize Palestine as a country ( yes, that is real!) increase fees on rental units specifically, ....

if I wanted to build a new barn on my property, it would cost more for permits than to build the building. I would have to, for example, pay to send post cards, pay for view drawings, pay for the hours of the city planning board to review my case and wait a year for them to review it and decide weather or not i should be able to store my equipment under a cover.

just 10 miles from a majority Hispanic, blue collar, working class town that supplies all the labor to the rich white people in boulder. the city that tells our farmers what they can grow based on some rotation of organic fru fru corps, restricts our access to public transportation, and is litterly trying to take my land away because they want to be able to get to their mountain chalets faster.


anyway. a bit of a rant. I live in a solid blue utopia, obv.

I did not vote for a single red candidate, but i cant in good conscience vote for the people that protest my vary existence either.


yes, I have a small business doing landscaping/handy man stuff, work a full time fortune 500 job, and we have what I would describe as a hobby farm.

 

[MrSquished]

There are good regulations and bad regulations and that should be discussed - but you sure make it sound like those in rural areas don't get anything from the government but headaches.

Besides things like a highway and road infrastructure that allows them to conduct commerce and live their lives. Infrastructure like electricity was spread into rural areas via government intervention. Healthcare subsidies. Medicaid expansion for the poorest that helps those in urban and rural areas.

It's a two way street.

 

[sdifox]

So maybe this is the multi-million/billion dollar question...but how do you sell these people on the fact that Democrats actually give a rats ass about them?
Targeted infrastructure investments? (Solar/wind)
Loans/grants for new and more efficient farming or equipment?
And I don't doubt that many of these things already exist in some form (e.g. rural broadband fund), but it needs to be more of an in-your-face kind of thing.

Start fining fake news.

 

[ivwshane]

how is that happening exactly? what is the disadvantage? certainly, if there was an advantage to rural areas they would have a greater gdp per capita?

LA county has more people than 43 of our 50 states. they will have different needs and different values than someone on a cattle ranch in Wyoming. What people here see when there is talk about making the senate have a population allocation, or a national popular vote is that the dense areas believe they know better what the rancher needs from the government than the rancher does. Those things include making it more difficult and expensive for the rancher to replace or maintain equipment via regulations that embolden manufactures to restrict access to repair, making it more difficult and expensive to use the water on his land via cities claiming more and more rights to the water that flows through and lands on it, making it more difficult and expensive to run the business via taxes and regulations, buy feed because all the business can afford is high yield non organic stuff, transport the cattle to market on trucks that are more and more expensive to maintain, register, etc. and a government that wants to control the price of his product to feed those in the city increasing the cost to do business. they do get some government grant or whatever here and there, but truly the only people that can afford to manage that process and win are the large corps based in the urban centers with office buildings, and the process has been designed for them to be the winners.

I live in a tiny microbubble and see these kinds of interactions every day. I see them protesting meat and gmo crops, calling for prosecution and jail time for my majority brown coworkers for contributing to climate change by working in the oil industry. while they must have the newest escalade and range rover in the garage of the 5000 sq ft house and a gas fireplace in every room. I also see them keep the real-estate prices in boulder crazy high, restrict parking, restrict # of people in a house to less than the # of bedrooms, and give false info to a group trying to change it so that they don't make it on the ballot, call for a tax on parking spaces at businesses if they employ someone that is living out side the city limits which is 99% white. increase the sales tax, including on food!!! so that they may spend millions on lawyers wondering if the city should recognize Palestine as a country ( yes, that is real!) increase fees on rental units specifically, ....

if I wanted to build a new barn on my property, it would cost more for permits than to build the building. I would have to, for example, pay to send post cards, pay for view drawings, pay for the hours of the city planning board to review my case and wait a year for them to review it and decide weather or not i should be able to store my equipment under a cover.

just 10 miles from a majority Hispanic, blue collar, working class town that supplies all the labor to the rich white people in boulder. the city that tells our farmers what they can grow based on some rotation of organic fru fru corps, restricts our access to public transportation, and is litterly trying to take my land away because they want to be able to get to their mountain chalets faster.


anyway. a bit of a rant. I live in a solid blue utopia, obv.

I did not vote for a single red candidate, but i cant in good conscience vote for the people that protest my vary existence either.


yes, I have a small business doing landscaping/handy man stuff, work a full time fortune 500 job, and we have what I would describe as a hobby farm.

You should try looking at your viewpoint from the other side since that's the actual current reality. If you did you'd see how ridiculously hypocritical your current position is.

 

[herm0016]

There are good regulations and bad regulations and that should be discussed - but you sure make it sound like those in rural areas don't get anything from the government but headaches.

Besides things like a highway and road infrastructure that allows them to conduct commerce and live their lives. Infrastructure like electricity was spread into rural areas via government intervention. Healthcare subsidies. Medicaid expansion for the poorest that helps those in urban and rural areas.

It's a two way street.

of course. the D party is always trying to tell everyone that the population centers should have all the power. just in the county I live in there is a huge dichotomy of thought and very little representation of the people outside the city of boulder, as its the high population spot.

 

[ivwshane]

of course. the D party is always trying to tell everyone that the population centers should have all the power. just in the county I live in there is a huge dichotomy of thought and very little representation of the people outside the city of boulder, as its the high population spot.

We get it, you want minority rule.

 

[herm0016]

You should try looking at your viewpoint from the other side since that's the actual current reality. If you did you'd see how ridiculously historical your current position is.

I have no dream of telling anyone what to do, esp. those in an urban area. What is the "other side?" also, explain "ridiculously historical"? like... growing your own food is so living in the past?

i have no asperation to rule over anyone. opposing current ridiculous regulations put onto my property by others is not telling them what to do.