I dunno. The percentages of people on food stamps, medicaid, and welfare in some Southern states is pretty high.
The statistics aren't all one way or the other but many Southern states get back more from Washington in government spending than they send in taxes.
All the bravado aside, the South benefited materially in recent decades from being part of the United States.
Texas has more people on Medicaid than Iowa has people.
Unfortunately I think that most states, north and south, are spending more than they are generating. I’m not particularly impressed that there is anyone who has the fortitude to break that spell.
Anout WW2 the South started getting some redistributed wealth from the feds.
This keeps the costs of NEs industries there cheap and their profits high. NE pays the taxes on southern profits since they own the industries.
Of course there are many reasons the South has never recovered from it’s looting after the war.
Most of them no one wants to examine.
Maybe. One third of all Americans getting food stamps are in California, roughly 16,000,000 people.
I guess it depends on where you draw the line. ;)