States are operating under an unfair disadvantage. Companies are voting with their feet, moving in large numbers from California to Texas and in lesser numbers from New York to just about anywhere with more reasonable gun-control and right-to-work laws. What's a state to do?
Foreign countries showed us the solution a long time ago: the Soviet Union, Cuba, and North Korea made the border more secure. That is, secure not only in the sense of controlling immigration, but in the even more important sense of stopping those terrible rich people from leaving in disgust. California and New York don't have the power to shake down emigrants at the border, though California has toyed with the idea. In contrast, the U.S. federal government is quite prepared to give it a try.
That's the ticket: Never influence economic behavior by persuasion, or by applying incentives out of your own pocket, when you can do it by force.
As I said during the 2008 campaign, the question at issue was whether the forces of the United States would point out at our enemies, or in at our citizens. The American people chose "in."
ReplyDeleteOf course. Then some will decide to just shut the biz down, rather than fight the regulatory hassles. Next, they may decide to take their human capital out of the morass into another political jurisdiction, and then THEY will be what is prevented from leaving.
ReplyDeleteSocialism ALWAYS devolves to a gun in your face, because after all the pretty talk, when humans will not do things that are opposed to their self interest willingly, they have to be forced to act against their interests. Then the old commie joke comes out- "We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us". And the economy grinds slower and slower and.....and the slumlord leaders at the top could care less, because a nation of impoverished slaves does not affect their shiny toys and parties at all. It is the readedy of the commons, in reverse- no matter how broke the country is, there is always enough skim to keep the leaders in caviar and Ferrari's. NK is my first exhibit.
This actually isn't all that new. The US has had a variation of expatriate taxes since 1966. The current iteration even goes after certain non-citizen green card holders.
ReplyDeleteSocialism ALWAYS devolves to a gun in your face
This actually can be an advantage for freedom lovers. Anyone who really does stick a gun in the face of a man who's trained (and I hold that every one of us has a duty to ourselves, our families, and our fellows to be trained) is virtually giving the gun to that man.
Eric Hines