BeeLine: This and That----October 11, 2024 Edition

A few random observations, charts and factoids to provide some context on what is going on in the world.

Fair Share Backfire

In my last blog post ("Truth About Taxes") I wrote about the plan by Kamala Harris to tax the rich.

Her plan appears to be to either enact a tax on unrealized gains or the net worth of the wealthy.

Kamala claims it would be done in order to insure that billionaires pay their "fair share".

Norway is one of the few countries in the world that still has a wealth tax.

Most countries who tried it have abandoned the idea because it resulted in the mass exodus of capital from their country.

In the mid-1990's as many as 12 countries imposed wealth taxes. That number is now down to 4---Columbia, Norway, Spain and Switzerland.

It seems that people with a lot of money have options about where they live and invest their money.

Norway increased its wealth tax to 1.1% annually after Norway's Labor Party made good on a 2021 election promise to increase the taxes on the rich.

In the year after the wealth tax increase, 30 of Norway's richest people left the country. That was more than in the previous 13 years combined.

Source: https://aier.org/article/norways-wealth-tax-is-backfiring-are-americans-paying-attention/

The wealth tax increase was supposed to raise tax revenues by $150 million annually.

The most recent estimate is that the wealth tax is now brining in $594 million less (a 40% decrease) than it did before the tax was increased. This is due to the $54 billion that wealthy Norwegians took with them when they left the county.

The problem with any tax proposal is that you are dealing with human beings that react to incentives and disincentives that destroy most static economic models. People are going to do what is in their economic self interest. They could care less about the fiscal interests of government.

Does Kamala Harris understand this? I know Donald Trump does.

Massachusetts---What Is Going On?

Massachusetts is one of the most reliably liberal states in the union.

It has only voted for the Republican candidate once in the last 40 years.

Source: https://www.270towin.com/states/Massachusetts

It is sure to do so again in 2024 in that Donald Trump was only able to garner 32% of the vote in Massachusetts in 2020.

Massachusetts has a population of 7 million.

However, over 37% of that population. (2.6+ million ) has an active EBT (food stamp) card.

More astounding is the fact that the number of EBT cards in that state has increased by 35% in the last year alone.

I can only draw two conclusions from this data.

Bidenomics has either failed the state completely or the fact that Massachusetts is a sanctuary state has not proven to be a very smart decision for the taxpayers of the state.

Is it any wonder that Republicans have little chance in Massachusetts when almost 40% of the population is dependent on the welfare state?

What did I say about incentives above?

Dependency on the Government

Speaking about dependency, here is an interesting graphic showing the change in the percentage in the population that is dependent on government transfers as a share of total personal income.

In 1970, there were only small pockets (yellow) in the United States where people were dependent on government transfers for 25% or more of their personal income.

In 2022, the exact opposite was true. The small pockets (green) were those areas that were not relying on government transfers for more than 15% of their income.

Credit: https://x.com/StephenMoore/status/1842176853236126111

Is it any wonder that we have $2 trillion annual federal deficits for as far as the eye can see?

What Media Bias?

Compare the New York Times coverage of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 vs. Hurricane Helene in 2024.

What could be the reason?

A Bad Dad Day for Tropicana x 2

Did anyone else notice that Wednesday turned out to be a bad day for anything named Tropicana?

The day started in Las Vegas where the iconic Tropicana Hotel was imploded to make way for a new ballpark for the ~~Philadelphia, Kansas City, Oakland, Sacramento,~~ Las Vegas Athletics.