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Originally Posted by asaris
Here's the question: whose income is growing? Is that growth in mean or median income? How about the wage gap? Is it possible there are other factors -- like, what is New York's major industry? And I suspect California might have problems unrelated to the income tax. As long as we're blaming politics, not business, what about California's unwieldy referendum system? The fact that more businesses are moving their headquarters to Texas might mean that Texas is nice for businesses, but doesn't say anything about whether it's good for your average Joe.
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Actually, in California in particular, I think the below average increase in wages is due to the change or shift in the distribution of income. I think in California (I lived there for about 11 years) you have a flattening of the normal bell curve when it comes in income. You have more really high income earners but and you have even more really low income earners (in part due to immigration - legal and illegal), however the people in the middle are leaving the state due to a number of factors including taxes. I left the state for a number of reasons including the fact that the cost of doing business was too high for me. I took my small business, my family, sold my California home, let my California employees go, and moved. I am not "rich" and if you multiply "me" by the thousands of others, sooner or later it has an impact. I personally know many other business owners who moved, some to Arizona, some to Nevada, and some to the South East.
Taxes and the cost to do business drives behavior, there are consequences to tax and regulatory policy. I don't see how people argue against that point.
-----Added 17/9/2008 at 10 : 50 : 31-----
Quote:
Originally Posted by loquitur
well, that's sort of a "duh." Being rich means being mobile - why subject yourself to confiscatory taxation if you don't want to? Mind you, a lot of people love NY and are willing to pay very high taxes to be there, for all sorts of reasons. But they don't have to. There's a reason why NY and CA have net outflows of US citizens (replaced to some degree by immigrants, who are at the bottom - low-taxed, high-benefit-receiving end of the scale), while FL and TX have high inflows.
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Like I said - I don't understand why people argue the point that you can tax and regulate the "rich" and it won't have an impact. Obama and his gang think they can raise taxes on the "rich" and the "rich" will just pay the higher taxes. Supply side economics works when lowering excessive tax rates and it also has the opposite affect when increasing tax rates.
-----Added 17/9/2008 at 11 : 00 : 37-----
Quote:
Originally Posted by dc_dux
I still love the logic of ace's latest WSJ editorial:
Cal and NY have high income tax rates and Cal and NY are experiencing people leaving at high rates....so it must the tax rates.
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I suggested several times that perhaps people like you and others go out and talk to people. I know why I let California. I know why many other business owners left the state. I currently live in North Carolina, a state that is getting a large number of New York transplants, I know why they leave New York. It is interesting but North Carolina is also starting to get a large number of transplants from Florida, not because of taxes, but because of the hurricane exposure. It may be a few years before the statistics and headlines start to reflect that, but talking to people gives one a heads up. This is one reason why North Carolina real estate has been holding up better than the national averages. I mention this simply to illustrate that Washington does not have all the answers, research (and citations from research) may be yesterday's new, a real people make decisions based on real things that happen - not theoretical stuff taught in grad school.