Red States vs. Blue States - Who Receives More Benefits?

Many websites are attacking conservatives because Red States tend to receive more in federal benefits than they pay in taxes. As a result, these conservative leaning states are being labeled as hypocritical.

However, when looking at this issue, it's very important to factor in age. Conservatives are often older than liberals (link), and have already paid a lifetime worth of taxes. The fact that these people are finally receiving governmental benefits shouldn't hide the fact that they paid for these benefits during decades of hard work. Many of these people are senior citizens who have served their country in the military, and are now receiving veterans benefits.

Also, this might be a rural / urban debate rather than red / blue. As a Mother Jones article states, "Rural states, on average, received $1.40 in federal spending for every tax dollar paid; urban states, on average, received $1.10." South Dakota and North Dakota are in the top 10 list of offenders of states that receive more federal dollars than they pay. But those states are hardly populated, and the amount of money that they receive in benefits is a drop in the bucket compared to sates like Illinois and New York.

Also, these articles didn't emphasize the red or purple states in the middle of the list that do pay back what they receive - Georgia, Texas, Oregon, Nebraska, Kansas, Florida and many others. 

Finally, it seems that tax fairness is probably less of a location issue and more of an income issue. When we zoom in, we can see that the top 10% of income earners pay about 70% of the taxes. And these same wealthy people are likely not dependent on many of the programs that they are funding. Speaking of fairness, how fair is that?