Walter Williams periodically has explained that the main beneficiaries of the so-called War on Poverty are all the bureaucrats who have very lucrative jobs in all the various redistribution programs, agencies, and departments. He calls these people “poverty pimps” and asks whether they actually have an incentive to solve problems since that would put their jobs at risk. Those are all interesting issues, but this post looks at the number of bureaucrats, by state, working in the “public welfare” industry (the Census Bureau has an interactive program that allows this type of calculation). Comparing that number of bureaucrats to each state’s population allows the creation of a “Poverty Pimp Index” showing the number of bureaucrats (at the state and local level) per 100,000 of population.
Surprisingly, New Hampshire is the worst state, requiring four times as many bureaucrats per capita to administer income-redistribution programs as Hawaii, which is the surprise winner as the most efficient state. I’m sure these numbers represent a gross over-simplification, and they may depend on how states classify employees, so this is nothing but a quick look at some interesting data. If anybody knows of more substantive research on the comparative efficiency of how states administer programs, please send it my way.
The Poverty Pimp Index (“public welfare” bureaucrats per 100,000 residents)
New Hampshire 360
Alaska 302
New York 290
Maine 280
Wisconsin 277
Pennsylvania 277
DC 277
Minnesota 266
New Jersey 255
Ohio 255
Kansas 121
Idaho 120
Georgia 118
Texas 113
South Carolina 104
Nevada 99
Mississippi 96
Indiana 95
Florida 92
Hawaii 86
