Thursday, December 8, 2016

Need More Proof Progressivism is not Very Progressive


Economist Stephen Moore writes in his column at IBD that blue states of America are in a depression. He didn't mean the collective funk of Hillary fans because they lost the election to Donald Trump. He's talking about an economic malaise in the blue states that went for Hillary Clinton.  Moore called them the “loser states.” They're all “progressive.” They have high tax rates, high welfare payments, heavy regulation, environmental “extremism” and very high minimum wages. Most of them have laws against drilling for oil or any kind of fossil fuels.

Of the ten states that Democrats won by the largest margins, California, Massachusetts, Vermont, Hawaii, Maryland, New York, Illinois, Rhode Island, New Jersey and Connecticut, all lost domestic migration (excluding immigration) between 2004 and 2014. Nearly 2.75 million more Americans left California and New York than migrated to those states.
“The whole left-wing playbook is on display in the Clinton states, and people are leaving in droves. Day after day, they are being bled to death. So much for liberalism creating a worker’s paradise.”
Looking at the ten states that had the largest percentage vote for Trump, Moore says eight of them – Wyoming, West Virginia, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Kentucky, Tennessee, South Dakota and Idaho – had population gains.
"This is part and parcel of one of the greatest internal migration waves in American history, as blue states, especially in the Northeast, are getting clobbered by their low-tax, smaller-government rivals in the South and the mountain regions.
The job gains in the “Red States” that Trump won by the widest margins has twice the job creation of the “Blue States” that Hillary won big in.
It's easy to understand why people might want to leave gray and rusting New York. But California? California has, arguably, the most beautiful weather, mountains and beaches in the country, and yet people keep fleeing the state that is supposed to be a progressive utopia. What doesn't make California and New York paradise is the high cost of living — thanks to expensive environmental regulations, forced union policies and income tax rates that are the highest in the nation, at 13% or more. 
Florida and Texas are right-to-work states with no income tax. Is it really a shocker that people would choose zero income tax over 13%? New York politicians know that their record-high tax rates are killing growth, which is why the state is spending millions of dollars on TV ads across the country trying to convince people that New York has low taxes. Sure. And Chicago is crime-free.
Even when it comes to income inequality, blue states fare worse than red states. According to a 2016 report by the Economic Policy Institute, three of the states with the largest gaps between rich and poor are those progressive icons New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts." -  Read More
What is the lesson? In our ecomonic system, taxing your population at high rates doesn't work. It results in slower growth and only benefits the rich and politically well-connected at the expense of everyone else.

Thank You MJA for the Linkage