Voting with Our Feet? Local Government “Services” and the Supposed Tiebout Effect | Mises Institute

The Tiebout Effect (“voting with your feet”) is supposed to provide a market solution that leads to a Pareto-Optimal equilibrium of local government “services.” Not so, writes Jim Fadako: It’s not you choosing the mix of service and tax rate; it’s the school system, or other governmental entity, making the choice for you.
— Read on mises.org/library/voting-our-feet-local-government-services-and-supposed-tiebout-effect

Illinois and California are losing citizens by the thousands.

West Coast & the Insane Socialistic Hunt for Taxes | Armstrong Economics

I have been warning that we are in a battle to the death against the socialists. The West Coast is becoming the place to leave as fast as you possibly can for any business. There are already companies starting to migrate from Silicon Valley to Texas. The migration has become. More and more Tech firms are setting up shop in Austin Texas. We are starting to see Tampa also perk-up. The advantages of both places have been that they “fit” the non-establishment atmosphere. The socialists in the West are just going nuts. You have Seattle taxing $275 per employee to shelter “homeless” of which many are aliens. We have Portland all upset over the “inequality” of income so they want to bring the “rich” down to the same level of the “poor” to make it fair rather than raise the poor. Strange how they always get that one backward. Lawmakers in Portland, Oregon have decided to attack the rich by imposing a business-tax on firms with extreme CEO-to-worker pay ratios: 10% Tax on firms with a CEO-to-Worker ratio over 100-to-1; and a 25% Tax on firms with a CEO-to-Worker ratio over 250-to-1. So in other words, if a company is in trouble and brings in someone to straighten out the firm and he is paid 250x that of an average worker, then they want to tax the firm 25%. The West Coast is just going nuts. As the funding for all their socialistic dreams leaves huge deficits, they are turning to “justify” raising taxes pretending they are fighting a new moral cause. When I was restructuring companies and helping those who wanted to establish a base inside the EU for the coming Euro, those firms who needed skilled labor in manufacturing I placed in Britain. If they needed the best tax deal and were not concerned about a manufacturing base, I placed them in Ireland. That is how I came to know Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. She wanted to meet the guy who was sending all these companies into Britain. There was no a single company I placed in France because the unions were crazy. On a strike, the actually kidnapped the CEO and his family until they got their demands. The German taxation was nuts. The taxes a company had to “contribute” to Employees benefits was 40% more than Britain. So you see, I was paid to do the best deal for my clients. That was my job. Today, I would NOT place any company in California, Oregon, or Washington. My recommendation is to get out before they impose an EXIT TAX like New Jersey.
— Read on www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/taxes/west-coast-the-insane-socialistic-hunt-for-taxes/

Seattle Made Top 10 Most Expensive Cities to Live Before the Homeless Tax | Armstrong Economics

Business Insider has published a map of the top 10 most expensive places to live and work and guess what – Seattle is in the list even before they impose this new outrageous tax of $275 per employee for companies that do more than $20 million in business annually. They claim it is for the homeless people which is really nonsnse. It’s like New York City taxing cigarettes to make people stop and when they do, they taxed the electronic cigarettes because their revenue declines. Once a government gets its hand on a tax, it is used wherever they need money and they never let it go. Like tolls on bridges and tunnels that were said to be there just to pay for the construction. The tunnels into NYC made so much money, the Port Authority then used it to build the World Trade Center. Then because it was government, they did not put sprinklers in the stairwells to save money where anyone else would have gone to prison for life. The number of businesses being hit is not just Amazon. These cities are becoming the place to avoid and they just never stop with the taxes. They go through money like it is water to be flushed down the toilet. Seattle has certainly reached the top our the list of where NOT to recommend any business establishment. This is how empires, states, and cities die. They just keep imposing more and more taxes without end so it simply becomes less burdensome to pick up and leave. The top states where there is now a net migration out are California, Illinois, New York, and New Jersey. Cities that are dying rapidly are like Chicago. Seattle’s homeless tax will most likely be the straw that breaks the back of that city as well. What is astonishing is the fact that Amazon put a hold on its development of offices there, and the city wanted to call this extortion justifying criminally charging Amazon? Clearly, nobody should even consider Seattle as a place for business and the aggressiveness and insanity of taxation in that city will not end here. California is also in the same direction. This “liberalism” is actually totalitarianism for they then justify punitive actions against anyone who disagrees. DO NOT set up businesses in California up to Washington State. It just may be time to leave before it is too late and it becomes a crime to migrate. New Jersey put in an EXIT TAX. You have paid your taxes in that state all your life. You reach the point you cannot afford to retire there. They then impose a tax to leave the state.
— Read on www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/taxes/seattle-made-top-10-most-expensive-cities-to-live-before-the-homeless-tax/

Ouch

Germany’s Hunt for Taxes Being Illegally Applied to the Past | Armstrong Economics

The Hunt for Taxes has now led to criminal charges for manipulating stock ownership to avoid the tax on dividends. There German Attorney General has filed criminal charges against a number of traders for the first time in what is called Cum-Ex transactions. The name seems a bit strange but it involves shifting the ownership of shares around between various people on the dividend record date (Latin: “cum”) and without dividend taxes applying (“ex”). The German Federal Ministry of Finance has said that banks and other suspects have avoided taxes by more than five billion euros. These type of transactions have been going on since the 1970s. Honestly, the one you heard of was concerning the French. They would sell their shares to a Brit who would be exempt from the tax and then the following day buys them back splitting the tax savings. Not the Germans are licking their lips at how much money they can now fine banks for helping these type of transactions while they are threatening the traders with ten years imprisonment. Of course, there is no specific law against this practice. It has been a loophole for decades. This attempt to use the criminal proceedings in Germany is by no means a so0lid case. There is such a thing as Ex Post Facto, which means you cannot declare something to be a crime after the fact. It appears that ten years in prison is the favorite means to extort money from people against the law over controversial share transactions, that are retroactively applied when they were not before. They will challenge this is the Wiesbaden district court which will decide by the end of August. If that court rules for the government, as far too often is the case when taxes are involved, then it will go up to the Federal Court or even all the way to the Federal Constitutional Court.
— Read on www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/taxes/germanys-hunt-for-taxes-being-illegally-applied-to-the-past/

They have a huge welfare state to support along with a bunch of immigrants

Socialist Seattle Councilmember To Pass Dangerous, Crippling Amazon ‘Head Tax’ | Daily Wire

Despite protests from hundreds of Seattle business leaders and voters, the Seattle City Council is ready to pass a “head tax” that may stymie business growth, negatively impact low income communities, and kill new jobs, all while funneling money into the Council coffers to take on homelessness.
— Read on www.dailywire.com/news/30513/socialist-seattle-councilmember-pass-dangerous-jason-rantz

They never get enough money 💵