Why Is It So Different In Some States Than Others

Why is Tamil Nadu so different from other states?

I am living in tamilnadu for 11 years now. My entire education was from AP, which is a good neighborhood to Tamilnadu. So i think I can write an answer on this. I have seen some common things which makes them different from otherMajority of them having questioning nature. They don't trust someone blindly. They could suspect the wrong things easily. Most of them are not sheep to follow the single fellow. They always have difference of opinion. They never support anyone 100%. This type of nature helped the state's police department to crack the complex cases.They dont like their own people or they won't support their own people when they are in other states or countries. Most of them won't talk in tamil among them while they are outside. They try to show themselves that they are not from tamilnadu.Most of them won't take risks with their own money like starting a new innovative businesses. Good copiers. We can count in fingers of tamil entrepreneurs like HCL, TVS group, Chettinad group to name a few. If someone succeeded in some business, it will be copied here.They are trustful employees like a soldiers to the king who cares welfare of soldiers. You can bank on them if you care for them.Rival minded. They remember the wound for long period, wait for their time to take revenge.They are somewhat lazy. They don't want to work hard. They love to work smart. And they try their level best to get the benefit without labouring for it.I have wrote these points after carefully analysing them in my 11 years of my stay here. Reader can relate a story behind every point in the above in the news stories. I am not saying everyone in tamilnadu are like this. But you can relate these points in them.No offence please. I wrote this because i think I have right to express my thoughts in the way that not hurting any individual.

Why do some states have higher taxes than others?

The United States has adopted a federal form of government.  What that means is that the individual states retain powers that a province, or a region, or a county, or a department, or other political divisions in other countries might not.  One of the powers that each state retains in America is the power to lay its own taxes.  Another is to make its own laws, so long as they do not conflict with the laws of the federal government.Each state has an elected legislature to make laws, and each state has a constitution that determines how that legislature will be constituted and how those laws will be made.  In effect, each state has a government structured as a miniature version of the national government.Accordingly, each state legislature sets the taxes at a level and in a manner it deems fit.  In a state like New York, that could take the form of an income tax.  In New Hampshire, they've decided to eschew income tax in favor of higher property taxes.  However they are collected, state taxes go to funding state expenditures, which are also a decision of the legislature.  And importantly, no state can determine tax rates for other states.So, to answer your question (apologies for the long-winded explanation!), some states choose to levy higher taxes than others because their state legislatures determine that it is the proper amount.As an aside, most states are subject to a non-discretionary balanced budget.  This means that the state must balance its budget every year.  There are various means of getting around this restriction and boosting cash on hand, but these band-aids are largely temporary.  This system has very strange effects during downturns such as these.  When the economy crashes, the state's income from taxes also plummets.  But the state can't easily support the economy by spending more - it has to drastically decrease expenditures or increase taxes to compensate for lower revenues.  This means that the state cannot act as a counter-cyclical balancing force, but instead contracts and expands with the rest of the economy.  NCSL Fiscal Brief: State Balanced Budget Provisions: http://www.ncsl.org/documents/fi....Hope this helps!

Why is it that some states have more pride than others like Texas, for example. Is it because some states care more about America than their own state?

I've lived all across America and I have to say at least in my experience, Texas is unique when it comes to state recognition and pride. As a native New Yorker, I thought New Yorkers were proud but not even close to the pride felt AND worn on the sleeves of Texans.If you ask most people in other states, they couldn't tell you what their flag looks like, let alone their state slogan unless it's on their license plate. Not only do Texans know their flag but also most other Americans can identify the Texas flag even over their own.If you ask a child from Texas who were their founding fathers, they're more likely to say Stephen F Austin and Sam Houston than George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.Most every house flies the Texas Lone Star flag. Texans are proud to let you know that they are the only state that's permitted to fly their own flag at the same height as the US flag.They’re proud of their Texas Rangers (not the baseball team), their Dallas Cowboys, their Alamo, their cowboy heritage, the fact that they are the only state that was once its own nation, the fact that they are the biggest producers of oil, wind energy and the size of their state. In fact, they like everything big. Bigger cars and trucks (the only state where a pickup is not just for workers but the family car), big personalities and big economy. And they sure like to brag about it.They are openly proud of their state and believe no other state comes close, a fact that can often be obnoxious to outsiders but oddly uplifting if you live there.It's the only place you'll see a truck driver and a stockbroker eating lunch together because class is less important than the fact that if you live there you're a Texan like every one else.One of the most unusual things is so many people who live in Texas are not even from Texas and yet they fall right into line and quickly become “Texans”. One of the most common bumper stickers on cars states “I wasn't born here but I got here as quick as I could”!I can tell you, having lived across the U. S. and in Texas now for several years, there's no place quite like Texas when it comes to pride of state.

Why are some states more prosperous than others?

Economist Thomas Sowell wrote three books (Race and Culture, Migration and Culture, and Conquests and Culture) exploring this very question. He offered a number of answers:Geography - proximity to navigable rivers, harbors, terrain (e.g., relatively flat and easily traversed or mountainous)Flora – soil fertility, availability of plants suitable for farmingFauna – availability of animals suitable for domestication (potential sources of food, transportation, hides, fur, wool)Climate – temperate, malarial, or frigidResource availability – trees for lumber and fuel; minerals including coal and oil.In addition to environmental variables are cultural differences. For example, people sometimes emigrated from areas where constant, hard work was required for mere survival. Their work habits didn’t always change even if they moved to areas in which living was much easier. As a result, the immigrants, or their children, often became far wealthier than the natives.Also, states with cultures that honor, what economist Dierdre McCloskey calls the “bourgeois virtues” (that is, self-reliance, persistence, thrift, diligence, honesty, creativity, tolerance, and personal freedom) tend to grow far richer than do others with different cultures.

Why do some states have more influence than others on electing the President of the United States than other states?

IMO there are three main aspects to the answer to your question.  Two of them revolve around the existence and operation of the Electoral College (United States).One is that the number of Electors a state receives is equal to the total number of representatives that state has in Congress, i.e. the number of Representatives (proportional to population) plus the number of Senators (fixed at two).  This means that small states are disproportionately represented in the Electoral College.  This was conceived as a compromise between the notion of all the states being represented equally (since, technically, it is "the several states" that elect the President, not the people) and the notion of all the states being represented purely based on population.The other is due to the "winner-take-all" nature of the apportionment of Electors from each state.  This ends up meaning that states which are solidly Republican or solidly Democratic don't get as much attention from the candidates.  Why would a Democratic candidate spend a lot of effort in e.g. California when s/he already knows s/he's going to win that state?  (Or, similarly, for a Republican candidate campaigning in Texas.)  So the states that get the most attention end up being the "battleground" or "swing" states - states where the margin is slim enough to go either way.  Most of the largest states in the US are sufficiently "red" (e.g. TX) or "blue" (e.g. CA, NY) that the "swing" states end up being smaller ones, and that's where most of the campaigning gets done.Finally, there is the matter of party primary elections.  States like Iowa and New Hampshire, despite being small, hold their primaries earlier than many other states, so they get more attention.