Who's the Welfare State?

I came across this picture of the Great Depression.  I asked myself "Does this look like today?"  After all, people are quick to compare today to the Great Depression.  

One thing that is interesting about this picture is that the sponsor of the sign is the Chamber of Commerce.  Today we do not look to the Chamber of Commerce for these kinds of solutions.  We look to the government.  

 I started to look at the "welfare state" concept using Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) data and came across some interesting facts that I felt like sharing.

Welfare State Ranking - Top and Bottom 5
1. New York	$3.17
2. Massachusetts	$2.40
3. Rhode Island	$2.35
4. Vermont	$2.30
5. Maine	$2.09
...
46. Virginia	$1.13
47. New Hampshire	$1.07
48. Colorado	$0.95
49. New Mexico	$0.90
50. Utah	$0.80

These figures are per-capita dollars (this allows for a fair comparison across states) in 2007.  The are for money received by individuals for programs like Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps, TANF, etc.  Interesting that the highest state receives 4 times as much as the bottom.  It is also to look at the top five and notice a similarity of geography.  

It is also interesting to look at the bottom five and compare it to the map in the previous post.  It seems like the people from Michigan are moving to the states with the lowest per-capita dollars.  Maybe these are states where the chamber of commerse is able to take care of their own and some others too.