It looks obvious

“Things should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.” — Albert Einstein

Facing Reality

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It is interesting to examine the reaction of different states, and political movements, toward changes in reality. I’m wondering what will be the thing that will make the Californian, and mostly to people who believe that redistribution of wealth through high taxation, to realize that they were wrong.

Facing large migration out from the high tax states it is amazing to read that the reaction isn’t necessarily the logical one. One would assume that in order to stop the fleeing of the competent and able population states, like California, will change their tax philosophy. But it seems that the reaction of the plunders is that they need to squeeze more from those who didn’t leave yet.

What would they do when these people will leave too? I don’t think that they ever spent a minute thinking about it.

Link: Meathead Economics

What’s gone wrong? A big part of the story is a tax and regulatory culture that treats the most productive businesses and workers as if they were ATM machines. The cost to businesses of complying with California’s rules, regulations and paperwork is more than twice as high as in other Western states.
But the worst growth killer may well be California’s tax system. The business tax rate of 8.8% is the highest in the West, and its steeply "progressive" personal income tax has an effective top marginal rate of 10.3%, or second highest in the nation. CalTax, the state’s taxpayer advocacy group, reports that the richest 10% of earners pay almost 75% of the entire income-tax revenue in the state, and most of these are small business owners, i.e., the people who create jobs.
And things may soon get worse, thanks to Rob Reiner, who played the liberal "Meathead" on the "All in the Family" sitcom in the 1970s and now plays the same part in real life. He and his rich Hollywood friends have put an initiative on the state’s June ballot that would add a 1.7-percentage-point income-tax surcharge on "millionaires" with income over $400,000, with the proceeds earmarked for universal pre-school.

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Written by Rogel

February 28th, 2006 at 7:06 pm

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