New California wealth tax proposal raises taxes on total net worth of wealthy California residences. But, what if they decide to leave the State? No problem. Economic impacts: Will ultra-wealthy CA residents leave the state? As mentioned above, the California share of all US millionaires and billionaires has increased over the last decade in spite of the 2012 high income surtax. Therefore, we are still far from a tipping point. The wealth tax bill is also structured in such a way CA wealthy residents who leave still have to pay the extreme wealth tax on a fraction of their wealth for up...
income tax
Three Friends And Their Divergent Paths In Life
This recollection is based on a true story. There were three friends, each were a little different to the other. As young boys the three began to mature into different people; John was lazy and he grew rounder as the others began to grow broad shoulders. While they played sport he would watch and criticize the other players. John loved his friends but he really was not as interested in participating in any of the harder activities like they were. David was smart, he was cunning and always interested in schemes and scenarios that benefited himself. He loved to play tricks on the others,...
The Great Sheldon Richman
I am so proud that Sheldon Richman agreed to co-found The Libertarian Institute with me and Will Grigg back in 2016. He is one of the all time greatest and most productive libertarians, having written thousands and thousands of articles and written and edited more than a few books, including for homeschooling and gun rights, and against income taxation and the Constitution. This year the Institute was proud to edit and publish his latest book, Coming to Palestine, a wonderful collection of Sheldon's essays on the real history of the creation of the state of Israel and their destruction...
Episode 348: Which State is at the top, or close to, in Business and Tax Rankings?
32 Minutes Suitable for All Ages Pete welcomes New Hampshire FSP Board Chair, Carla Gericke. Carla comes on to talk about how New Hampshire is now #1 in taxes (with no sales or personal income tax), how their business tax is declining quarterly, how business-friendly it is with deregulation as well as recently abolishing the death penalty. They talk about that, and more! Free State Project Sign-Up State Business Tax Climate Index The NH Economy Donate at the Libertarian Institute Pete's Link to Sign Up for the LP Lions of Liberty Podcast Link to Richard Grove's Autonomy Course Pete's...
Warning: Actual Costs of Government Programs Higher Than Advertised
As outrageous as the price tag promised to us for initiatives like Elizabeth Warren’s healthcare plan, Bernie’s ‘Medicare for All’ plan, or AOC’s ‘Green New Deal,’ history tells us the actual cost to taxpayers would be far higher. In its first year, Medicare cost $3 billion, and as reported by Reason Magazine, “The House Ways and Means Committee estimated that Medicare would cost only about $12 billion by 1990 (a figure that included an allowance for inflation).” The actual price tag in 1990? $107 billion, a full nine times the original projection. Similarly, Medicaid – the jointly funded...
More Money Pumping Won’t Make Us Richer
Whenever a central bank introduces easy monetary policy, as a rule this leads to an economic boom — or economic prosperity. At least this is what most commentators hold. If this is however the case then it means that an easy monetary policy can grow an economy. But loose monetary policies do not generate economic growth. These policies set in motion the diversion of real savings from wealth generators to the holders of the newly pumped money. Real savings, rather than supporting individuals that specialize in the enhancement and expansion of the infrastructure are consumed by various...
Proof That “the Rich” Aren’t Going to Fund the Tidal Wave of New Spending
So, $47 billion on free college tuition; $1 trillion for new infrastructure; $1.4 trillion to write off student loan debt; at least $7 trillion on a Green New Deal; $32 trillion on “Medicare for All.” By one estimate, these new spending proposals total an estimated $42.5 trillion over the next decade. And this is on top of federal budget deficits, which are projected to rise from $779 billion to $1.37 trillion annually over the same period. Who is going to pay for all this? "The Rich" Won’t Pay for It All “The rich” is one currently popular answer. New York’s high-profile Rep....
A Modest Proposal For National Discontent
How about the South and Mountain West each become an independent nation "in free association" with the US? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Islands The deal is: you get to control immigration, taxes, trade (excepting ITAR - arms trade), but can have no military. Citizens of the two territories can elect to voluntarily submit income taxes to the IRS, and in return can become eligible for a US passport. I think the Empire will always be a stumbling block on the road to political diversity in American domestic politics. However, as the Empire - and the left - centralizes, why not...
Roving Bandit, Stationary Bandit, and Income Tax
Many libertarians have embraced the slogan “taxation is theft.” I myself think it is more precise to say that taxation is extortion. But even saying that fails to capture how egregious taxation really is, especially income taxation. When a mugger or a home invader accosts you, he points a gun at you or waves a knife in your face and demands your wallet or some other property. In most cases, if you surrender your property to him as he demands, he takes it and flees, and you will most likely never see him again. He is, in the classic phrase, the roving bandit. In contrast, the state is, in...
The Income Tax Implies that Government Owns You
The income tax is enshrined into law but it is an idea that stands in total contradiction to the driving force behind the American Revolution and the idea of freedom itself. We desperately need a serious national movement to get rid of it – not reform it, not replace it, not flatten it or refocus its sting from this group to that. It just needs to go. The great essayist Frank Chodorov once described the income tax as the root of all evil. His target was not the tax itself, but the principle behind it. Since its implementation in 1913, he wrote, "The government says to the citizen: 'Your...
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