Greener means more unequal
I was reading a City Journal article about how Californias rulers are leaving its younger population an awful state of affairs: low wages, limited jobs, expensive housing and other costs. The reasons for this are complex, mostly boiled down to big government, however, one thing stuck out at me: California has a massive income gap. Ironic given how liberals are always jumping and shouting about income inequality and their favorite state is one of the most egregious. I speculated that liberal states would be more unequal, and more conservative states would be more equal.
Looking at the GINI coefficient calculations for each state, I discovered my hypothesis is correct. The most income equal state is also the most conservative: Utah, which is on par with Scandinavia. Joining it are Alaska, Wyoming, New Hampshire, and Iowa. Then I scrolled down to the other end. DC takes the lead as the most unequal, followed by New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Louisiana. California is the 8th most unequal.
There are a lot of exceptions in both directions, and it would be hard to quantify political preference, but the trend definitely shows more conservative states near the top as most equal, and more liberal states at the bottom as the most unequal. So, it looks like conservative policies achieve this one liberal goal, while heavy taxes and spending end up exacerbating any inequality. Of course, its a nonsense statistic like the poverty rate, but its always good to weaponize bad arguments against their makers.