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Keith and stuff
01-23-2013, 02:33 PM
Shopping Around for a Better Life
John Stossel
Jan 23, 2013
http://townhall.com/columnists/johnstossel/2013/01/23/shopping-around-for-a-better-life-n1494778

This is John Stossel on empowering people, not the government. This is the United States of America. You have a great deal of power and influence. The various state governments are offering a service you can take or reject. Use your power. Shop around. Use your ultimate vote, vote with your feet.

Below is the 1st half of the article. See read the 2nd half of the article or comment on it, click on the link.


Thanks, California! Thanks for your monstrous spending and absurd regulatory overreach! America needs you. We need Connecticut and Illinois, too! We need you the way we needed the Soviet Union, as models of failure, to warn us what happens if we believe those who say, "Government can."

Moving to California was once the dream for many Americans. Its population grew at almost triple the national average -- until 1990. Then big government, in the form of endless regulation and taxes, killed much of the dream. In the last decade, 2 million people left California.

Many of them moved to Alaska, Florida, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington or Wyoming. More on what makes those states special in a moment.

When the USSR died, overthrown by its own citizens' hatred of central planning, I assumed the world would acknowledge that big government is a nightmare. But people don't. Our brains are programmed to believe that "next time, central planning will help." So, many people forget the lesson of the USSR.

Fortunately, they can still watch what's happening right now in California, Illinois and Connecticut. OK, those states are not totalitarian dictatorships, but they tax and micromanage so much that they will soon approach bankruptcy, cut services and stagnate.

And Americans have an advantage Soviet citizens never had: 50 states. If we live in a big-government state, we can move. I did.

I grew up in Illinois. It was nice enough (except in winter). But gradually its politicians gave away its future.

I moved to New York City, no political paradise, but where the big TV news jobs are. And maybe New York's promises to unions won't bankrupt us too soon.

I could always move again. I would still be smothered by federal rules, but at least I can move to a place with fewer onerous state rules.

A group called the Free State Project invites us to move to New Hampshire to help create "liberty in our lifetime." It's too early to see how that will work out, but that state now has a booming population of libertarians and anarchists. One even got elected to the state legislature after running against his own roommate, also a libertarian, whom he accused of not being anti-government enough.

Americans who want to escape state income taxes and live near better job prospects can move to one of those nine states that I mentioned above.

Read the rest of the article. http://townhall.com/columnists/johnstossel/2013/01/23/shopping-around-for-a-better-life-n1494778

paulbot24
01-23-2013, 02:48 PM
Kind of odd that somebody encouraging the idea of using your feet to vote by shopping around for a better state would ultimately end up in New York. I think I like Stossel....sometimes.

TCE
01-23-2013, 02:49 PM
Unfortunately, a few of the comments for that article show why people hate libertarians. One gentleman wants those wanting stuff from the state executed. Various other comments are troubling.

In terms of the article itself, it seems like he is right, although he only has a view data points to work with. He could have added more, but I understand how Stossel was aiming at a general audience. I will say that in those states where it is obvious the house of cards will fall, the smart money is on people trying to get as much as they can while they can.

Keith and stuff
01-23-2013, 03:21 PM
Fox News has a more topical and specific article, featuring a famous golfer that complained about the high taxes in CA.

California residents, businesses consider bailing on Golden State over taxes
By William La Jeunesse
Published January 23, 2013
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/01/23/california-residents-businesses-consider-bailing-on-golden-state-over-taxes/

Anti Federalist
01-23-2013, 03:54 PM
In the last decade, 2 million people left California.

And, upon arriving at a new location, immediately proceed to fuck it up by voting for the same policies and politics that ruined the place they just ran away from.

People is idjits.