[washingtonismoney]

Pastor:

The data may be important to you, but it\'s important to note that natural experiments may be few and far between and hence the same datum might be heavily influenced by context and mean several different things. You cite the examples of Monte Carlo and other such small countries, but whatever the state of tax law, New York City and surrounding environs have been packed full of rich people for a long while now. Why? Because for many rich people, the only and best place to do business and play is New York. For all of California\'s problems with regulations, et. al., startup funding to Silicon Valley increases more than apace. Why? Because the best place to do a startup is in Silicon Valley (and the reason the best place to do startups is in Silicon Valley has to do with it being a medium-tax, high-services jurisdiction; similar things can be said about New York).  

Is there a point in which rich people or any people will flee for lower-tax jurisdictions? Of course. But top marginal taxes have been has high as 90%, during the Eisenhower years, and the economy was doing swimmingly back then, so the anti-tax story has to get a lot more nuance than lower-is-better.

It would probably be a benefit to the country if the tax debate could get more nuance than that, as the current tax regime, with its implicit subsidies and loopholes, is very bad and could and should be fixed with significant benefits to the economy.

[washingtonismoney]

Pastor:

The data may be important to you, but it\'s important to note that natural experiments may be few and far between and hence the same datum might be heavily influenced by context and mean several different things. You cite the examples of Monte Carlo and other such small countries, but whatever the state of tax law, New York City and surrounding environs have been packed full of rich people for a long while now. Why? Because for many rich people, the only and best place to do business and play is New York. For all of California\'s problems with regulations, et. al., startup funding to Silicon Valley increases more than apace. Why? Because the best place to do a startup is in Silicon Valley (and the reason the best place to do startups is in Silicon Valley has to do with it being a medium-tax, high-services jurisdiction; similar things can be said about New York).  

Is there a point in which rich people or any people will flee for lower-tax jurisdictions? Of course. But top marginal taxes have been has high as 90%, during the Eisenhower years, and the economy was doing swimmingly back then, so the anti-tax story has to get a lot more nuance than lower-is-better.

It would probably be a benefit to the country if the tax debate could get more nuance than that, as the current tax regime, with its implicit subsidies and loopholes, is very bad and could and should be fixed with significant benefits to the economy.