(FORTUNE Magazine) – Paying for the Pentagon, which gets more than 40% of the money Congress spends, is a money-losing proposition for most Americans. But not all. When the taxes paid by the average family are compared with their state's share of Defense Department spending, the citizens of the District of Columbia and some states come out ahead (see table). James Anderson, a Michigan State University economist and historian, analyzed the Pentagon's $289 billion 1987 budget according to congressional districts. Anderson, who has been studying where Pentagon dollars go for 15 years, finds that defense spending is increasingly concentrated in ever fewer areas. Though the state of California squeaks in as a winner ($279 per family), more money is going to fewer districts. Aerospace production lines and other high-technology contractors, such as Lockheed's missile plant in Silicon Valley, are the draw. A growing number of California's districts -- 58% by Anderson's latest reckoning -- are net losers. The presence of a major defense contractor usually guarantees that the residents of the district will come out on the plus side. Politicians also play a big role in directing defense dollars to their districts. In fact, some continue to do so long after they have left office -- or, indeed, life itself. South Carolina ranks No. 8 among the winner states, but it would be a loser without the district once represented by Democratic Congressman Mendel Rivers (1905-70). The money still rolls in to military bases built up decades ago when Rivers was chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.W.W.

CHART: NOT AVAILABLE CREDIT: SOURCE: EMPLOYMENT RESEARCH ASSOCIATES CAPTION: WINNERS -- AND LOSERS -- FROM DEFENSE SPENDING