TheRealTigerHorn

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You’re reinforcing my point, and you also seem to be narrowing the inputs in a way that hides it.

And what you’re citing isn’t Alabama operating independently, it’s Alabama functioning as a node inside the U.S. system. The jobs, investment, and industry all depend on national markets, federal infrastructure, and policy stability.

And only counting “entitlements” as federal inflow massively mischaracterizes and massively understates the support. Federal money isn’t just transfers, it’s defense spending, infrastructure, contracts, grants, subsidies, and payrolls. That’s a large share of the activity you’re pointing to.

So you’re taking outputs that depend on that system, undercounting how much of that system feeds them, and then presenting the result as if it stands on its own.

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You turned around and did the exact same thing you accuse me of doing. You won't count the massive sunk costs of the infrastructure investments that were made in CA and NY over nearly a century while states like AL languished in poverty, but now you want to count every dime of catchup investment in infrastructure while ignoring the massive entitlements payments going to both of those states.

Now, to get back to the original discussion ITT, compare AL to any individual Canadian state. Only the mineral-rich, but sparsely to extremely sparsely populated provinces compare well to AL. The provinces where all the Canucks live are at rock bottom in GDP per capital. Here's the link with the data. Ontario and Quebec are the most populous provinces with around 60% of Canada's total population, and are well behind AL.

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If 10–15% of GDP is coming from net inflows, that’s a structural advantage baked into the number before you even start comparing. That alone is enough to distort a comparison.

Then add: access to a unified U.S. market, federal defense and infrastructure spending, and no responsibility for running a currency or national system. Canada carries those burdens itself.

Look at how many of your own examples only work because Alabama is tied into the larger U.S. system.

The manufacturing base depends on access to a national market and federal infrastructure. Defense spending is federal money. Transfers and subsidies are federal. Even the stability behind investment is coming from U.S. monetary and fiscal policy.

You're pointing to outputs that are downstream of that integration, then treating them like they’re self-contained. They’re not. That’s exactly why the comparison is useless.

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Comparing states by inflows and outflows is also deeply flawed. A huge portion of CA's fed tax dollars come from capital gains, up to 40% in boom years, and that wealth comes from a tiny fraction of the CA population (which is now moving out as fast as it can). Cali and NY also artificially pump their numbers by being financial centers. If you live in AL and bank with Citi, Chase, Sofi, or the like, you generate tax dollars in those states, not AL, with your hard earned dollars.

In short, CA and NY effectively tax the rest of the nation. Some aspects of the "tax" are positive, like building companies, but it's not like CA could generate those cap gains and the taxes on them without AL and every other state buying iPhones and NVIDIA graphics cards.

AL also has a disproportionate amount relative to population of military and NASA work and personnel. That is a very different inflow than federal entitlements payments.

Agree with the OP. It's especially annoying when the dropdown in question is for a company that does 80-100% of its business in CONUS, like a regional hospital chain.

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Between this shite and Head FB Coach Alexi I’m beginning to think the Russian Mafia controls our AD

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Didn't we also hire a coach/admin named Warsaw?

AU AD is now the Warsaw Pact. Time to drop the Iron Curtain on the rest of the SEC.

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Well, it’s a combination of a lot of layers, but the federal government funds the state and the state funds the universities. The federal government does provide federal grants and federal tuition to the majority of its students so they can attend the university which is essentially the federal government funding the school. It’s more complex but make no mistake, universities are publicly funded institutions by either local municipality money, state money, or federal money, and when you follow the money, you find the boss.

There needs to be change, or our world as we know will explode. Not just CFB

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You know the system is broken when even bamafan's are writing rational posts about it. :cheers:

For all the hype around "billions in college athletics", the amount brought in by athletic departments is generally less than or at best equal to the R&D $ universities bring in, and most of those are Federal or state. Note that the R&D figures below are all 3-4 years old, athletics revenues are generally 2024-2025.

UAT - $269M in R&D, $267M athletics revenue
Auburn - $304M in R&D, $194M athletics revenue
Texas - $1.37B :wha: in R&D, $331M in athletics revenue
LSU - $543M (inc multiple campuses) in R&D; $223M athletics revenue

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What the hell is this crap?

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Sarcasm. Sometimes, it's even funny.

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Approximately 20–40% of George Washington University (GWU) undergraduate students pay the full "sticker price" for tuition, as around 60% to over 75% of students receive some form of financial aid, including institutional scholarships or need-based grants. In the 2023-2024 academic year, 51% of first-year students received need-based financial aid.

Aid Recipients: Roughly 60%–79% of students receive financial aid.

Institutional Aid: Approximately 77% of students receive institutional grant aid, with an average award of roughly $33,965.

Merit/Need-Based: The school offers merit scholarships and meets 91% of demonstrated financial need for applicants.

First-Year Aid: The average need-based scholarship or grant for first-year students is over $43,000.

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In other words, if your parents are still married, make around $100k per year, or more, and saved all of your life to give you a modest 529, don't bother applying, especially if you don't check any of their DEI boxes.

Now do "Sdkfz". It's a mouthful IIRC

Yes, but how fast could a Somali-owned daycare spend that much? Get with the times, man, those are rookie numbers!

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Congratulations to them... and I'm not surprised their fellow DINKS turned on them.

I feel sorry for DINKS... it's all fun and games until you're 82, your spouse is dead, you have no family and your life consisted simply of earning and spending.. and nary a soul will notice when you're gone.

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I'm well north of 50. I know several contemporaries who went childless. Without exception, they have confided to me that they regret it.

My two are not perfect, and have given us plenty of stress and expenses over the years. I wouldn't trade them for a beach house, 25 grand annual vacays (oldest is 25) and a slew of exotic cars, which is about what I could have afforded if I didn't have them.

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Again though. What is the problem we have with Cuba getting oil? I get why we did. Are we just living on nationalizing oil and US private business interest 60 years ago? That's a lot of money to waste at this point.

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Removal of a key Chinese ally 90 miles off our coast. It's a revival of the Monroe Doctrine. The US is eliminating foreign influence in our hemisphere. If you believe that serious conflict with China is inevitable, and many on both sides of the political aisle do, then this is a good preparatory strategy.

Every step Trump has taken, pressure on Canada, pressure on Greenland, Venezuela, Iran, and now Cuba, is being taken with an eye toward removing China's allies and securing independence from their critical minerals. (Canada and Greenland have the largest deposits of bottleneck heavy rare earths outside of Russia and China) while placing us in a position to control Chinese oil supplies.