The Titanic Didn’t Have Enough Lifeboats Either
By Johnny Roosh
Taxpayers vote with their feet. They’re hoofin’ it to Texas…and from California; two diametrically opposed microcosms of political ideology:
What is surprising is the growing evidence that the low-benefit, low-tax alternative succeeds not only on its own terms but also according to the criteria used by defenders of high benefits and high taxes. Whatever theoretical claims are made for imposing high taxes to provide generous government benefits, the practical reality is that these public goods are, increasingly, neither public nor good: their beneficiaries are mostly the service providers themselves, and their quality is poor.
while California and Texas are comparable in terms of sheer numbers, their demographic paths are diverging. Before 1990, both states grew much faster than the rest of the country. Since then, only Texas has continued to do so. While its share of the nation’s population has steadily increased, from 6.8 percent in 1990 to 7.9 percent in 2007, California’s has barely budged, from 12 percent to 12.1 percent.
Unpacking the numbers is even more revealing—and, for California, disturbing.
What’s so special about California?
California and it’s economy are faced with the fallout of massive over-spending, immigration, health care and arbitrary and burdensome emissions regulations – which have failed by the way. Sound familiar?
What’s so special about Texas?
between 1998 and 2007, the states without an individual income tax “created 89 percent more jobs and had 32 percent faster personal income growth” than the states with the highest individual income-tax rates. California’s tax and regulatory policies, the report predicts, “will continue to sap its economic vitality,” while Texas’s “pro-growth” policies will help it “maintain its superior economic performance well into the future.” The clear implication is that California should become more like Texas.
…and so should the US. With Texans hinting at secession, is the Lone Star state the lifeboat for the other 49? Might it be time to jump in?
Nawwww. Let’s see how the Vikings finish the season first.
November 3rd, 2009 at 8:49 am
As I understand it, the property taxes in Texas are pretty high.
Link confirms, especially when you look at the tax as a percentage of home value.
CA 0.48%
MN 0.81%
TX 1.82%
November 3rd, 2009 at 9:11 am
No income tax. Likely lower housing costs.
November 3rd, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Lower heating costs. And apples don’t equal oranges.
Minnesota’s property taxes are kept down by income tax transfers called Local Government Aid and by carefully NOT counting levies to repay bond issues or special assessments, which are supposedly targeted for specific improvements but are abused here for general expenses.
Plus, some property taxes include garbage, which mine don’t.
St. Paul charges me property tax but in addition, I pay a street maintenance special assessment, an alley maintenance special assessment, a curb and gutter special assessment.
Add several hundred dollars per year in special assessments to my nominal property tax, add the portion of income tax that goes to local government aid, and we’re right up there with the highest taxed states.