All Taxes Ain't The Same.

       There was an article in yesterday's New York Times about state taxes and how rich people affect all the states. If the wealthiest person in any given state decides to move to a state with lower or no income taxes, how does that affect the home state's revenues? Here's what I know about it and I admit I don't have all the answers. When that richest guy moves out, likely everybody that stays will have to pay a little more in taxes. Now some taxes like income taxes and taxes on investments and estate taxes cost the wealthy more than the middleclass. But taxes like sales taxes cost the middleclass a heck of a lot more than the millionaire or billionaire.
       So if a state has no income tax, but has a high sales tax instead, that's inviting to a wealthy person. But for a less fortunate person its a lot more costly to live there. For the wealthy its obvious, but for the poorer guy, not so much. See both the poorer and the rich guy have to eat, own a car, own or rent a home and so on, but with less income to provide those necessities, the poorer guy has to struggle a whole lot more than the rich guy. That's why rich guys like to move to the no income tax states and if the poorer guy knew this and could afford to give up his job and the cost of moving, he'd move to the lower sales tax states.
       The thing is though, pretty much every state needs an average and equal amount per resident to operate. But if every resident moved to the states that better suited them then we'd have all wealthy and all poor states. The rich states would all do well, but the poor states would struggle and would outnumber the rich states about 45 to 5 or maybe 49.8 to .02. Plus those five would have a lot fewer residents. So while it would make it somewhat harder for the wealthy to buy elections in the 45 states, they'd have an easier time in the 5. Imagine a .02 state.
       I think rich folks might want to consider that before they make the move and the poorer folks might want check the bankbook first. Now as for the retired folks, that's a whole different set of questions and answers. That's because a lot of retirees have a 'don't give two hoots attitude.'