Will the Last Job Creator to Leave California Please Turn Off the Lights?
by Dan MitchellI’ve written before about whether California is the Greece of America, in part because of crazy policies such as overpaid bureaucrats and expensive forms of political correctness,
And we all know that California has one of the nation’s greediest governments, imposing confiscatory tax rates on a shrinking pool of productive citizens.
So it is hardly surprising that the Golden State is falling behind, losing jobs and investment to more sensible states such as Texas.
But not everybody is learning the right lessons from California’s fiscal and economic mess.
There’s a group of crazies who want to increase the top tax rate by five percentage points, an increase of about 50 percent. And they have made Kim Kardashian the poster child for their proposed ballot initiative.
I’m relatively clueless about popular culture, but even I’m aware that there is a group of people know as the Kardashian sisters. I don’t know who they are or what they do, but I gather they are famous in sort of the same way Paris Hilton was briefly famous.
And they have cashed in on their popularity, which may not reflect well on the tastes of the American people, but it’s not my job to tell other people how to spend their money.
But not everybody shares this live-and-let-live attitude, which is why the pro-tax crowd in California produced this video.
I suppose I could criticize the petty dishonesty of the proponents, since they deliberately blurred of the difference between “tax rates” and “taxes paid.”
Or I could expose their economic illiteracy by pointing out that higher tax rates would accelerate the emigration of investors, entrepreneurs, small business owners, and other rich taxpayers to zero-tax states such as Nevada.
But I won’t do those things. Instead, like the Nevada Realtors Association and Arizona Business Relocation Department, I’m going to support this ballot initiative.
Not because I overdid the rum and eggnog at Christmas, but because it’s good to have negative role models, whether they are countries like Greece, cities such as Detroit, or states like California.
So here’s my challenge to the looters and moochers of the Golden State. Don’t just boost the top tax rate by five-percentage points. That’s not nearly enough. Go for a 20 percent top tax rate. Or 25 percent. After all, think of all the special interests that could use the money more than Ms. Kardashian.
And if somebody tells you that she will move to South Beach or Las Vegas, or that the other rich people will move to Texas, Wyoming, or Tennessee, just ignore them. Remember, it’s good intentions that count.
In closing, I apologize to the dwindling crowd of productive people in California. It’s rather unfortunate that you’re part of this statist experiment. But you know what they say about eggs and omelets.
By the way, here’s some humor about the Golden State, including a joke about the bloated bureaucracy and a comparison with Texas.
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81 Comments
and didn't i just read where Kali/Mexifornia is going to spend $100 BILLION on a high-speed rail line between Sacramento & San Diego? -that is projected to take 22 yrs and was touted as going to create 1 million jobs, but the pimps pushing it got caught counting each job, each year? so optimistically, maybe 50,000 jobs in a state of 30,000,000 people? not new wealth, just new jobs invented at others' expense. whoopee do.
and don't even get me started on the folly of hi-speed trains in the first place…..
The behavior of California's political masters is beyond comprehension…unless each and every one of them hopes to be the "last man standing," and plans then to stride forth as the savior of the Golden State. But that implausible possibility to one side, the state is a giant political suicide pact. Pretty soon we'll be happy to return it to Mexico in fee simple absolute.
The cancer is spreading north. I live in a beautiful state being run into the ground by statists, progs, liberals, socialists, Marxists or should I just say Democrats?
Personally, the entire Kardashian clan could take a long walk off a short pier and I wouldn't mind.
But who in the HELL are these high tax libs to tell them they they have to give up their money.
IT'S THEIR MONEY, not yours. Get over it and start on the recall of senile Governor Moonbeam.
Mr. Mitchell,
The flaw in your plan, which I agree with in principle, is that, once California does run all businesses and jobs out, they will have massive budget deficits. They will then receive massive bailouts from the Federal Government. That means that WE will ultimately support California's spending.
As a capitalist who finally had enough of California in 2009, I say leave it totally to the looters and let it crash. Maybe it can serve as a warning to all other states, because they don't seem to be heeding the lessons of Michigan.
It would be better to build the High Speed Train from ALL of the major cities in Kalifornia to ANYWHERE outside the state of Kalifornia. At least then the productive people could leave FASTER!!!
As soon as these "High Tax Libs" contribute ALL of their money to the state of Kalifornia, then I MAY listen…..until then………..STFU!!!
Oh but think of those union jobs a high speed train would create:
-Unionized train operators
-TSA agents at every station, you know for our benefit
-Unionized maintenance workers
-Unionized workers cleaning the stations.
That's a democratic dream.
Last week our local Democratic Representative decided to get several buses and round up a bunch of "special needs" children and take them to the local park. He got on his podium, with all these kids surrounding him and gave a speech on how these children would lose their funding if they didn't raise taxes on the rich.
California is done. Liberals have completely destroyed this state and we're stuck in a swirling cess-pool because the majority of people who live here either are too stupid to vote in Conservatives, too stoned, or have no idea what history is.
The problem is, it will never change with Obama having 48% who don't pay taxes and the 1 in 7 people on food stamps. Perpetual death spiral………
It is very sad indeed to see the state I was born and raised in turning to dust like it is. I left when I was 18 and because of the idiots living there, I have never looked back. All the school chums I had also left the state. Very sad indeed.
Mr. Mitchell has adopted my attitude. I agree whole heartedly. They voted for the insanity, so let them keep on keepin on. I feel terrible for friends like Petro who are held hostage amongst the Nazicrats.
Microcosms are ignored if the control is of the same mindset, each thinking they are the variable that determines the result. Sorry to be Eeyor here, but Pres. Obama's stated plans are reflective of the Caliafornia's train(I know, y'all just gave a big duhhh), and the majority (99%) of candidates are all aboard that train, except Ron Paul(no duhs but alot of negitves now).
Hey Petro. By special needs, do you mean all Democrat voters?
Thank God we were able to flee that Late Great State of Kalifornicate!! Those rich Idiots in the Sun Valley area keep trying to change Idaho. But they are a minority with their liberal ideas.
Any wonder why we have to Bankrupt this state?
They can not ever pay their bills and the current "leaders" have no clue on how to even start to address it.
There were many other state that are right behind,
I sorry to tell all the people who are entitlements that the people who made those promises never had the cash to pay the bills but the got rich in process telling the people what they wanted to hear.
I agree with author – California is worse – no question
Ah California state of my birth, so glad I gave you the finger and moved to a state with reasonable laws permitting processes and taxes.
For anyone left in that hell whole trying to make a living I have two words GET OUT!
A friend of mine emailed me before the holidays and informed me he put his house on the market and was moving his business to Texas
That makes 5 of my friends who have left this state and the company's they worked for or owned
They advised me to do the same and it is under consideration
Because as long as the libs control this state it will keep going down hill
that would be great, and the suckers left in kalifornia can be left to pay the bills.
illinois raised the tax rate 66%, and they still cannot pay the bills, so i am guessing back to the tax hike drawing board. oh, did i mention, that they didn't pay any bills with the new tax money, they spent yet more again. stupid is as illinois does!
Hmmmm… The problem with that is that I'd change my status in a heartbeat. I'd then start paying my taxes on a quarterly basis, maybe file extensions, put it off as long as possible. Enough people do that and you'll starve out the government. I for one will refuse to pay taxes before I allow a bailout of a state.
forget the mexico fence,build one around "BIZZAROWORLD""(california),make it a bomb testing site??like a cockaroach most likely pelosi will survive???
Yup, complete with drool cup.
Its not Kalifornians that are the problem, its their government.
The taxpayers who put up with the insanity from Sacramento, are no different from the rest of the country, slightly right of center.
But because a weak Republican opposition has over the years caved in to Democratic gerrymandering and entrenchment, the state is what it is. The arrogance and public be damned attitude of the State legislature comes from the knowledge that they carved themselves and the Congressional delegation into perpetual safe districts.
I’ve written before about whether California is the Greece of America, in part because of crazy policies such as overpaid bureaucrats and expensive forms of political correctness,
With all due respect to the author, California is first.
First and Foremost.
Everything, and everyone else, are running distant seconds, thirds, fourths………
Dan, I understand you wrote this column with a little "tongue-in-cheek".
But let me assure you, the legislators and bureaucrats in Sacramento will take your suggestions very seriously. After all, you are an economist. How could this advice be misquided?
Tax the rich type policies are being drummed into the heads of students at Stanford, UC Berkley, UC San Francisco, UC Santa Cruz, UC Los Angeles.This is why I am pessimistic. Only utter collapse and failure will solve Kalifornia's problems.
I can only hope the idiot states like CA go bankrupt soon – as a warning to the 'slippery slope' blue states who are headed in the same direction. Meanwhile, I am so glad I live in a rtw state that is mostly red.
Unfortunately, a lot of the money to build this hideous waste is coming from federal funds. You know how much of a fan of hi-speed rail Mr. Obama is…
Give California back to Mexico. We deserve better in this country.
The best economic advice I ever got was from a bear in Yosemite: "Don't die with money in your pocket."
The stupid bureaucrats are doing their best to help us all follow the California Bear's advice. Personally, I'd as soon make & spend my own money. I'm glad to pay taxes for clean water, plenty of electricity, passable roads and well protected borders. But paying for a fireman to retire at 50 on a hundred grand? Take a hike.
I'm in Michigan and with the dwindling union membership and population, we just elected a Republican governor and Legislature – things might just start looking up if the DemonRats don't succeed in destroying the nation's economy.
I wish a group of business owners would place large 'ads' in several of the major newspapers announcing why they are leaving/have left. The bubble socialists need to start smelling the coffee.
Sadly, methinks there is only one solution to California, courtesy of Gene (Lex Luthor) Hackman in "Superman"…
Nuclear weapon. San Andreas fault.
Nuff said.
I'm sorry that Kalifornia has succumbed to the corruption and greed of the Democrats. But it seems to me that a few ballot initiatives and informed electorate could rein in a lot of the CA Assembly's power. Keep fighting, but like an alcoholic, the state may have to hit rock bottom before the people wake up.
If you are a California resident/conservative voter/tax-payer, please back Assemblywoman Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield who is working with the fellow who wrote the recall Gray Davis initiative . . .
"Under the current system, and likely the new one, most of the 120 ruling state legislators are dependent for existence on labor unions and the ever-expanding public-employee tax waistline.
This has led to the filing of a constitutional amendment ballot initiative last week to make California’s Legislature part-time. The aim is to diminish the power of professional politicians and return control of the state to citizen-legislators." . . . . .
"Initiative Filed
Assemblywoman Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, filed the constitutional amendment ballot initiative, along with People’s Advocate CEO Ted Costa, renowned for his leadership in the gubernatorial recall election of Gov. Gray Davis.
Grove ran for her Assembly seat as a private-sector businesswoman, and plans on going back to her business when her legislative terms are up.
If the ballot initiative is passed by voters, the California Legislature would meet no more than three months per year: 30 days in January, and 60 days in May and June. Governors would be permitted to convene special sessions, lasting no more than 15 days. Legislators’ pay would be scaled back from nearly $9,500 per month now to $1,500 per month, according to Grove.
But Grove has said that this is not an attack on legislators, and instead is only an attempt to take the perks and appeal out of the full-time job and bring it back to real public service, allowing anyone to run for office. : Initiative Filed
from: http://www.calwatchdog.com/2011/12/13/initiative-...
BTW, that picture of the Kardashians looks like a picture off the set of "Scarface", where is Al Pacino at?
One of the top national waste management companies, until now, headquartered in Kalifornica, has announced it's moving to Texas. ASAP. You know you're in trouble when even the trash collectors are leaving.
Hollywood doesn't practice what they preach – I doubt many of them would even think to look for the light switch.
Plus, I have serious doubts about whether they'd leave for anything short of a nuclear holocaust.
A warning to all 'real' conservatives in California…get out while you can!
Callifornia is leaning so far to the left…it is about to dump into the ocean!
Truthfully!
They won't. If the businesses leaving did something like that, California would punish anyone else leaving by passing laws to tax them at a bankrupting rate in the year they left. Remember how they used to soak folks entering the state with the emissions tax on out of state vehicles? California has always believed that when it comes to constitutionality, it's better to ask forgiveness than permission.
And the real simple answer to High speed trains would be…
If a Rail company thought they could actually make money they would build them, while I lived in the Chicago burbs I took METRA and actually saved time and money riding it, but we are talking a short 30 mile hop. Rail's main and eco friendly use is long distance freight hauls, that is where the smart money is..
This is what happens when…
1. Allow one party rule for the last 25 years
2. Allow the public sector unions to become a power broker
3. Allow massive voter fraud
It's not unique to California. Any state with these condition will be in bad shape.
As a Californian, I'm happy the state is going down the tubes. With no more money, it means all the degenerates, freeloaders, leftist, and illegals will go back home!
Watch California folks! Its one of the only states that progressives have managed. They had the 7th largest economy in the world, the biggest pool of wealthy people and the most productive state YET they managed it into the ground.
This is a micro example of what they are doing to the US. They are a ball and chain. They suck the life out of anything they touch and they actually believe this is a good thing. Destroying prosperity is the only thing progressives know.
If they can't manage California with all those advantages then they can't manage the country.
Amen, from another CA refugee living in ID!
There's an initiative in the signature gathering process now, to make the legislature part time, but like every other one, if it passes, It will get taken to taken to court where activist state judges will invalidate it, and if its appealed all the way the 9th Fed, well, you what'll happen there.
Being in Oregon myself, I would like to point out, that if the cities of Eugene and Portland (Ashland to a lesser degree) were to be removed from the equation, then the Oregon would most definitely be considered a Red State.
Crashing seems the only way, even though it would hurt us all. Sacramento hasn't a clue. Not a one.
years ago the idea was being bandied about that the US should buy Baja from Mexico to settle their debt, etc. now i'm with you- just give it back and call it even. my sister-in-law is making plans to be among the next to leave SoCal…
And that would be taxation without representation. A cause for which our Founding Fathers rebelled against their former King.
"will have massive budget deficits"? -they already DO.
All the wealthy people who're bleating about "tax me more" are people who will:
a) hire one or more tax accountants to make sure they avoid the real impact of any of the measures they propose,
b) publicly campaign for higher taxes on themselves, while campaigning just as vigourously (but privately) for new tax loopholes which allow them to escape those new taxes, and,
c) will quietly decline to make any voluntary debt reducing contributions the the US and or their state treasuries.
It's a pose, and nothing more.
Marxism like every other evil is fascinating and has to be played out until its final collapse before its followers realize, if even then, what a total failure it is.
The word you are looking for with respect to the Kardashian sisters and Paris Hilton is infamous.
I wish Assemblywoman Grove the best of luck. But I fled the Bay Area because the people, the everyday people I met on the street, are nuts. Oh, they're nice enough except when it comes to politics. They turned down some very good people who were running for the Congress and the Senate and the CA legislature and then elected Jerry Brown. There is no hope for them. The schools are falling apart and yet they support the teacher's union which is bleeding CA dry. Roads are deadly to your car but they still insist on not privatizing and instead feeding their hard-earned money to CALTRANS. BART is so unsafe, I quit riding it and yet they want to build another hi-speed railway. The Bay Bridge relocation and earthquake proofing is so over budget and behind schedule, it's laughable. People eat in San Francisco restaurants naked, the only requirement being a towel to put over the seat and nobody bats an eye.
I could go on and on – suffice it to say, California is gone.
Your comment would make an excellent campaign ad.
This is what we have come to.
Ben Franklin told us long ago that once the citizenry figures out that they can vote themselves a portion of the government tills…..we are done.
The supposed academics and intelligentsia behind America's Progressive movement show us at each and every turn that they have NO answers for any of America's (real or contrived) issues.
The song remains the same: Tax more.
Global warming: tax more.
Job creation: tax more.
Universal health coverage: tax more.
Uneducated, unproductive boobs who feel it is unfair that they they get minimum wage for sweeping a floor: tax more.
"What do you call it when someone steals someone else's money secretly? Theft. What do you call it when someone takes someone else's money openly by force? Robbery. What do you call it when a politician takes someone else's money in taxes and gives it to someone who is more likely to vote for him? Social Justice."
Biggest issue I see is how to keep those that supported this lunacy from moving to where I live, and perpetuating it. I have NO interest in seeing the unions gain a toehold, nor seeing my state run into the ground by folks that thought that their schemes just weren't implemented correctly, and that they will get it right this time….
Unfortuantely, you are probably right. Big Government won't go down without a fight from their activist friends, but you have to keep trying.
California is the worst business environment in the USA. I live in California and I can tell you that starting a business over here is just not worth it. It gets even worse. Check out the following link
http://thebusinessrelocationcoach.blogspot.com/
Moving a business from California to another state can save that business up to 40% of their costs. We are so screwed… and yet the Dems over here want to tax us even more!!!
Yeah, I'm not a position to leave California, its either put up with or fight it. Ive declined withholding so they get nothing from me until "I" figure out what "I" owe them, not other other way around, and sign every danged petition against them I can get my hands on. Fortunately we live in a conservative "stronghold", t unfortunately, that means we seem to be a target for every atheist/leftist nut group there is.
Actually, there are many Californians like myself who did not vote for this insane mess. However, we are paying the price for the morons who voted in these so called politicians. I figure very soon I will be voting with my feet instead of with the ballot. It will be a vote to leave the state for either Texas or Tennessee. With that vote, the state will be loosing two more productive high earning Californians.
You're right, Paul. That's why I live on the East side, hoping for a replay of Van-Port…..only bigger.
Don't be too profitable. Leeches like fat hosts, not skinny hosts.
They already tried high speed rail. A private company wanted to make one from San Fran to LA. They would buy off the shelf track and trains from Japan, a proven leader in high speed rail.
1. The US train unions screamed and demanded all trains be built in the US.
2. The FTA (be you didn't know we had a federal transit authority) demanded the rail run freight. That meant using any rail that is made for high speed would be replaced by freight rail. Also the wheel base would be narrower making the trains slower.
3. All the towns along the way demanded the train stop at their town.
4. The FTA demanded the trains meet US requirements meaning they would now have to be heavier and bulkier thereby lowering the top speed of the trains.
After all the "changes", the 2 hour bullet train turned into an 8 hour amtrak.
The Hollyweird lunatic fringe is fond of talking incessantly about how "the rich" should "pay their fair share." Well,Communists, here's your chance: Kalifornia is drowning amid all of those silly pipe dreams of yours and, since you're so rich, then you'll want to step right up and save The Golden State, won't you?
If the moral argument is the state can tax because the state is spending the money on morally just items such as "the poor" then, by that claim, the government should always be frugal with money and never spend it on a bike path, arts, a stadium, libraries, research into rat farts, fisting art for homosexuals, paying for social agendas, planning society or the other 99% of the crap they spend money on.
In the video they claim Kardashian's money could be spent on education and feeding the poor. Can Kalifornia claim every dollar it has collected and spent has gone ONLY to feeding the poor and education?
Oh, we'll have representation. It's just that, with all of those electoral votes to buy, all of our representatives will be more than happy to send California our money.
I don't see why our Federal government would even blink an eye before putting non-tax payers in prison.
Yes but, in deference to Mrs. Thatcher, they haven't run out of other people's money yet. There's still a whole nation of people living in States with few electoral votes (who therefore don't matter) to fleece yet. The States with the highest electoral power also happen to be the most liberal and they do believe you are obligated to support them.
Can we keep the property and just give them the "people"??
Illinois is is in the team picture.
They raised all the taxes and make deals to keep companies in state.
The Dems needs removed ASAP. Any chance of that happening? Think Lisa Madagin is likely to do her job?
Blago may be a choir boy compared to current group
The locusts who destroy California will move elsewhere. Hi Texas. You're looking awfully delicious to them. Watch them move to Austin and spread out from there.
Michigan may hit total rock bottom before California, so perhaps it comes to its senses sooner. California won't. No matter how bad it gets, the weather keeps them thinking its all good, no matter how screwed up it is.
So what we need to do is pass a bill saying that any state smaller in area than the state of Texas, is NOT too big to fail.
I live in TN. You're welcome to come. Those who leave the cess pools they voted for, then continue to vote for the Nazicrats in their new home are not welsome.
there are very few problems in life that cant be solved by the suitable applications of explosives???
Be careful what you say around a paranoid regime. I'm sure the drones and trolls are monitoring this site.
i would contribute to a reinforced concrete wall if they promise to run the high speed train into it while containing pelosi, capt moonbeam,and other communists??/?
Yea right. California is the most dynamic, not to mention the largest, state economy in the U.S. Were it a country it would be the 8th or 9th largest economy in the world. It gets the lion's share of VC investment and is home to 3 of the 5 largest hi-tech companies in the states. You mentions mom and pop departures or $5 million here $6 million there without mentioning the other side. in Q2 of last year VCs pumped $6 billion in new investment in California. In a market economy businesses moving is normal. It just happens that more are setting up shop then are leaving. Year after year California gets at least 50% of all the venture money invested in the entire U.S.
http://www.actsocal.org/index.php?option=com_cont...
http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/050411t.htm?utm...
MEMPHS ?!?!?!?!
I would almost rather live in Baghdad than Memphis. If you took Memphis OUT of TN, then looked at our demographic data, it goes up a dozen or more states. It would be like seeing how Michigan fairs(fares?) as a state when excluding Detroit.
Come here to Nashville. Small town life with big city amenities.
I always liked Nashville. My wife and I have an old friend that was raised and living there after his retirement from the Navy. It may be a possibility if I can find a place to teach. The consultant work I could do from anywhere.
I worked for BellSouth while in Memphis and that is how I found my way to Nashville often enough to appreciate it. The last time I was there, Jimmy Buffet was wondering the streets before his concert.
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