When “tax the rich” meets reality:
More than $70 billion in wealth left New Jersey between 2004 and 2008 as affluent residents moved elsewhere, according to a report released Wednesday that marks a swift reversal of fortune for a state once considered the nation’s wealthiest.
Conducted by the Center on Wealth and Philanthropy at Boston College, the report found wealthy households in New Jersey were leaving for other states — mainly Florida, Pennsylvania and New York — at a faster rate than they were being replaced.
“The wealth is not being replaced,” said John Havens, who directed the study. “It’s above and beyond the general trend that is affecting the rest of the northeast.”
This was not always the case. The study – the first on interstate wealth migration in the country — noted the state actually saw an influx of $98 billion in the five years preceding 2004. The exodus of wealth, then, local experts and economists concluded, was a reaction to a series of changes in the state’s tax structure — including increases in the income, sales, property and “millionaire” taxes.
The real rich will always find a way around taxes – they’ll either lobby the government to grant loopholes, or they’ll hide their money overseas. Meanwhile, those who are prosperous and yet find themselves to be “the rich” as liberals go ever lower on the income scale for tax increases, just move to jurisdictions with lower tax burdens. While my State of Nevada is quite in the economic dumps right now, we still benefit from a huge amount of wealth which decamped from California as that State went on a tax and spending spree (Arizona, Utah and Oregon have also benefited from California’s economic suicide).
Taxes there must be, but taxes should never be implemented to make things “fair” or to redistribute wealth – such taxes actually end up hurting the poor the worst as opportunities for advancement dry up as money hides from the tax man. Taxes should always be geared towards a combination of revenue maximization coupled with encouragement of wealth creation – they should be simple, non-burdensome and everyone who earns a penny or has any wealth at all should pay something, even if its quite small (no true citizen can be excused from the burden of government unless physically incapable of earning money).
As liberalism has worked in practical effects, it has become a “soak the poor” scam – the rich are fine, the middle class is burdened and the poor “progressively” have their chances of advancement curtailed. We can’t make the law philanthropic – a desire to help has to come from within, not from the tax code, or any other legal code. Tax for the necessities of government, and leave the rest to the generosity and good sense of the people. Trying to do otherwise just makes a mess – as we can now see with blinding clarity in New Jersey.
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