Red and Blue America: Meet the Health Belt

TCS Daily ^ | 9/25/2006 | David Tufte

[Jane2005]

The division of America into red and blue is a totem of our times. The red states voted for Bush, the Blue for the Democrats. The blue states are on the coasts, the red states are flyovers.

More importantly to Republicans, and invidiously to Democrats, the red states are -- at worst -- no less prosperous than the blue states, and probably a good bit better off if we pay attention to migration patterns. The Democrats know they are in real trouble if they don't start turning some of those red states, because the electoral college will shift away from the blue in the next reapportionment.

The list of contrasts between red and blue is large and it can be fun to play around and find unusual associations.

The September 25th issue of Business Week provides a new way to divide up the country, that's both cute and informative. They use some unusual colors I'll label gold, azure and teal, and call the result the health belt.

It's fun to draw distinctions among states, and it's cute to throw some unusual colors into the mix. But, their result is more interesting than they guess, since it correlates very well with the red/blue distinction. This is because it doesn't have anything to do with health at all, but on employment in the (heavily government-involved) healthcare industry.

[Chickensoup]

Health care jobs are increasingly becomeing government jobs. We will catch up to Britian soon. Lousy socialist system. Healthcare is going to be the lever to rachet it in and boomers and SSDI receipiants are going to be the force.