There's a similar externalities-based argument for why some states should be net tax donors to the federal government, but I think it's a little weaker. How much does California benefit from New Mexico or Virginia being a net tax recipient?
In 2005, Californians paid out $35.9 billion and received back $31.2 billion. That's a gap of $4.7 billion. That's a lot.
Do you think the amount of money the state receives indirectly from tech companies run by Americans educated in out-of-state colleges exceeds this amount? The figures for this are much harder to come by, but I suspect that the state makes back at least a same-order-of-magnitude amount of what it pays out.
According to wikipedia, there were 386,000 tech workers in the Bay Area in '08. If we assume that half of them are Americans from out of state, then they'd have to pay about $5000 in taxes a year to make it worth it, assuming that there's also a multiplier of 4 due to workers in other industries being hired to serve them.
Of course, all this assumes we're running on a "we pay you taxes in exchange for your nerds" model, and it may be more complicated than that.
[EDIT] Colorado was the state the paid out $35.9 billion and received $31.2 billion.
An Air Force base in New Mexico defends the whole country, but the spending is credited to New Mexico (at least, some of it is). And someone might work (and pay taxes) in New York, but retire (and receive SS/Medicare) in Florida.
Both military spending and entitlements will skew these numbers unfairly towards low cost of living states.
Actually, it's more, and it doesn't matter.
CA elects "progressive legislators" who push the programs that do such transfers. Do you really want to argue that it's okay to do that on the state level but not on the national level?
Potentially a good bit. If Federal tax dollars help improve the overall prosperity of Virginia, then Virginians become more likely to consume California's products. I bet affluent Virginians watch more movies and buy more MacBooks than poor Virginians.
Is it an overall net gain for California, though? I have no idea. Maybe an economist can answer.