People who make 40k a year, an income you say is very common in areas with a low cost of living, pay zero federal income taxes. That’s why people from red states don’t contribute any income tax revenue to this country. They are free riders. Yet these are the people bitching about taxes and voting for Donald Trump.
First of all, you're objectively wrong. Per Forbes the lower rungs of the 2023 tax brackets are as following:
-Not over $11,000: 10% of taxable income
-Over $11,000 but not over $44,725: $1,100 plus 12% of the excess over $11,000
For most of their income, then, a person making $40K would pay a federal income tax of 12 percent. To claim they pay zero federal income taxes is a patent lie, which doesn't in the least surprise me coming from you at this point.
Second, people in states with lower costs of living tend to cost less to administer benefits to; for example, in 2018 a single unit of low income housing can cost $750,000 in California.
In that same year, one 250-unit complex in Austin, Texas had a fair market price of $21 million, and was listed for sale at $24 million. Even going with the high figure, this suggests it cost less than 1/7th as much to deliver low-income housing services in what's probably one of the more expensive cities of Texas, a red state.
Third, red states are some of the most hard working statistically speaking. Here is a list of the top ten states in terms of hours worked; of these, only Nevada voted blue in 2016.
If red states make less money on average despite working the most hours, then the implication is that America's companies pay workers in red states less than workers elsewhere. One could justly argue, then, that money paid out to red states is them receiving the money they're owed, which is the farthest thing from mooching.
Fourth, you're not paying out to red states. The uber-rich are, and for the most part they just happen to live in one state or another. In 2020 the top 10%, defined as those who earn at least $152K a year, paid 73 percent of federal taxes. Suffice to say, even the state/territory with the highest per capita income in the nation isn't at $152K.
To personally take credit for what other people you've never met pay in taxes is the very definition of pathetic.