New Yorkers Trying to Flee High State Taxes Find Moving Isn’t So Easy
How is the current exceptional focus on taxes a productive policy? Taxes are investment in your (country&#x2F;locality). While nobody likes the cost of investment, our lives and prosperity and everything else depends on it. And while some investments are worthwhile and some are not (just ask any VC!), to say we should minimize and avoid all investment is, of course, ridiculous. For example, nobody would suggest you minimize investment in your home unless you were leaving soon, or would advice YCombinator to minimize investment in startups unless they simple wanted to close out business now. You can&#x27;t leave your country (or you must live somewhere) and it&#x27;s never going out of business, you hope.<p>Places with low investment (and taxes) in the U.S. and around the world generally have a lower quality of life and don&#x27;t produce much beyond rent-seeking industries such as fossil fuels. Is the goal to model the U.S. economy on the great successes of places like Alabama,[0] or would it be better to model it on California or New York? Almost all leading industries, as well as education, arts and other things, are in high-investment places like California, New York, Michigan (automobile industry), etc. Successful people from low-investment areas move to high-investment areas to pursue their dreams, for straightforward economic reasons: that is where resources are. Tim Cook, from Mobile Alabama, comes to mind as well as the many entrepreneurs in SV from India. Almost nobody born in SV moves to Mobile to start their business. Smart kids from California go to Berkley, not U of Alabama, because the state has invested in higher education. The smartest kids from Mobile go to Berkley too (or to other leading universities in high-investment places).<p>Poor countries are a simple example: They invest little out of necessity and their citizens are poorly educated and live harder and shorter lives. Under U.S. tax and investment policy, uniquely among wealthy countries life expectancy for Americans is now decreasing.<p>[0] My apologies to Alabamans for using their state as a simplistic example of low-investment government. Of course there is much more to Alabama than that, and it&#x27;s much more complicated than a simple number or stereotype.<p>EDIT: some clarifications and enhancements