Delaware, South Dakota Least Socialist States in America

Ah, so that's why Sarah Palin left Alaska: she was fleeing socialism!

Mr. Gibilisco points me toward a fun little MSNBC article that calculates the most socialist states in America. There's no squawking about smoking bans or climate change legislation or other misapplications of the S-word. Greg Bocquet of MainStreet.com works from the "from the core definition of socialism as a form of government in which the state owns the means of production and allocates resources to its citizens at its discretion."

Bocquet thus divides state expenditures by state GDP and ranks the states by that percentage high to low. His top five: West Virginia, Alaska, Alabama, Vermont, New Mexico.

Surely we all want to know how South Dakota ranks, but the article doesn't provide a full spreadsheet. I thus go hunting for my own table. USGovernmentSpending.com comes to my aid, providing an even better dataset: combined state and local government spending. The results: South Dakota state and local government spending in Fiscal Year 2009 was $6.1 billion, 15.9% of our $38.3 billion GDP. We're not quite one-sixth socialist... which ranks us 49th nationwide! Only Delaware is less socialist than we are!

State	State & Local Spending (billions)	State GDP (billions)	Govt/GSP	"Socialism" Rank
Alabama	$40.60	$169.90	23.9%	9
Alaska	$14.30	$45.70	31.3%	1
Arizona	$58.40	$256.40	22.8%	17
Arkansas	$21.30	$101.80	20.9%	29
California	$437.10	$1,891.40	23.1%	15
Colorado	$44.70	$252.70	17.7%	46
Connecticut	$37.10	$227.40	16.3%	48
Delaware	$9.50	$60.60	15.7%	50
DC	$14.90	$99.10	15.0%	51
Florida	$168.60	$737.00	22.9%	16
Georgia	$82.90	$395.20	21.0%	28
Hawaii	$14.40	$66.40	21.7%	23
Idaho	$11.70	$54.00	21.7%	24
Illinois	$123.30	$630.40	19.6%	38
Indiana	$52.10	$262.60	19.8%	35
Iowa	$27.40	$142.30	19.3%	39
Kansas	$26.00	$124.90	20.8%	30
Kentucky	$37.20	$156.60	23.8%	10
Louisiana	$51.40	$208.40	24.7%	7
Maine	$11.50	$51.30	22.4%	18
Maryland	$55.00	$286.80	19.2%	40
Massachusetts	$71.50	$365.20	19.6%	36
Michigan	$87.00	$368.40	23.6%	11
Minnesota	$54.80	$260.70	21.0%	26
Mississippi	$25.60	$95.90	26.7%	4
Missouri	$48.40	$239.80	20.2%	33
Montana	$8.80	$36.00	24.4%	8
Nebraska	$20.00	$86.40	23.1%	14
Nevada	$23.10	$126.50	18.3%	43
New Hampshire	$10.60	$59.40	17.8%	45
New Jersey	$96.60	$483.00	20.0%	34
New Mexico	$20.50	$74.80	27.4%	2
New York	$277.30	$1,093.20	25.4%	5
North Carolina	$77.90	$398.00	19.6%	37
North Dakota	$6.00	$31.90	18.8%	41
Ohio	$105.60	$471.30	22.4%	19
Oklahoma	$28.80	$153.80	18.7%	42
Oregon	$37.10	$165.60	22.4%	20
Pennsylvania	$114.70	$554.80	20.7%	31
Rhode Island	$11.10	$47.80	23.2%	13
South Carolina	$43.10	$159.60	27.0%	3
South Dakota	$6.10	$38.30	15.9%	49
Tennessee	$50.10	$244.50	20.5%	32
Texas	$208.00	$1,144.70	18.2%	44
Utah	$24.70	$112.90	21.9%	22
Vermont	$6.30	$25.40	24.8%	6
Virginia	$67.80	$408.40	16.6%	47
Washington	$71.10	$338.30	21.0%	27
West Virginia	$14.80	$63.30	23.4%	12
Wisconsin	$52.10	$244.40	21.3%	25
Wyoming	$8.40	$37.50	22.4%	21

Note that when we include local spending, Alaska takes first place for socialism. They can't just see Russia from their front porches; they live Russia, spending nearly twice as much of their state wealth as South Dakota does on state and local government.