The flight of business and talent is inevitable when faced with a hostile business/tax environment. Talent is rewarded in a healthy economy and attracts and retains the smartest and most competitive people. The direction many states and the US in general is headed is the opposite. Central planning, class warfare and the tentacles of big government are strangling this country.

It’s sad to see the class envy and the moral rot that passes for progressive thought in this country. The tipping point has been reached as far as the non producers controlling the process.
The political system has been so corrupted that I think the good people in this country have thrown in the towel.
Khrushchev was right–we will destroy ourselves from the inside, no foreign invasion necessary.

It’s so easy now to conduct business from anywhere in the world that wealthy people can comfortably leave the U.S. There are plenty of countries that would love to have these people.

My guess is you will see an even bigger push to shut down “tax havens” and more severe limits on allowing rich Americans to take their wealth abroad. The Left is really scared their cash cows are going to head for the hills.

If Obama gets everything he wants and (with the overwhelming Democrat majorities in Congress, it’s certainly very likely) and basically restructures the U.S. to permanently resemble something like Sweden or France in the 1970′s, me and my wealth are outta here.

I’m not one of these annoying people that make threats like that when my guy loses, I can deal with a Democrat President and Congress (I have before). This time it’s different, I really feel like this country is at a turning point with how we react to this financial crisis. It’s very hard to turn back once you start down the road to socialism and it can take generations to get back on track.

is that in the past, people like me could move to different states, where the business environment was conducive to growth, lower income taxes and better cost of living. Unfortunately, with a over powering federal government becoming the burdening factor on business i.e. regulation and corporate taxation, there is no escape within CONUS; however, states could still provide a slight offset to the increased tax burden, which is certainly coming. However, there is nothing that will stop the regulation. Talent will follow the incentive and the self interest. Let there be no doubt that companies are now in holding pattern or are preparing to determine what is in there best interest to remain competitive. Anyway I think I tangented there.

If you are on Digg you should digg the story related here via this link.

Libs can threaten to leave, and they have an alternative. They can go to Canada or Europe, and get what they are proposing. I wish they would and then leave us alone.

The US is (*gulp* WAS) unique in the world. Conservatives don’t have the same alternative.

“The Rich”, people making barely over $50k, are preparing to abandon California in droves. But to where? Seems California will precede them in their departure.

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Here in the High Tech Industry has already begun moving our manufacturing operations to Singapore.

Salaries are lower, while property costs are higher so fixed costs will be about the same, so why move?

Management has been mostly non-commital about the details, but my direct manager told us the main driver was corporate taxes. It is just flat out much less expensive to manufacture in Singapore and ship to our (mostly Asian) customers than to operate in the US.

Those of us still working expect to be looking for work elsewhere in about 2 years. I have considered the idea of going along if asked, but so far it hasn’t come up.

Balancing the thought is what the others have written above: If I flee and I’m not here, I’m not available to fight the fight.

I’m reading this book by Ayn Rand for the first time. Fiction is quickly turning into non-fiction…
Remove the talent and the world will crumble upon itself.

the first things that go are all the services and amenities. Juneau has very few old money rich people and really none by the definition you’d use for old money in the East or South. It has been however a very affluent town with an economy largely driven by the fact that it is the capital city of a wealthy state and has a lot of high level career employees and all or most of the appointees. There is a small, wealthy “owner” class, but most business here is now seasonal and has Outside owners. The profits of those businesses leave and only the typically low tourist industry wages stay here.

However, over the last several years, the top of the economic food chain has all but been eliminated here. Governor Knowles (Democrat) bought a major office building in Anchorage to house state offices and then allowed many appointees in his administration to live in ANC or elsewhere rather than move to Juneau. Nevertheless, most of the upper levels of the government stayed here. Gov. Murkowski required all but one of his commissioners to live in Juneau and maintained his office here. Though some jobs crept away during Murkowski’s administration, most of the top jobs stayed here. Gov. Palin has changed all that.

Only one of her commissioners lives in Juneau and very few directors are here. Where the commissioners and directors are, all the entourage follow. With the dramatic loss of the highest earning large cohort here, everyone who depended on their spending is either strapped, leaving, or gone already. The stock brokers who used to have fancy offices downtown are now in much more proletarian quarters in the ‘burbs. The drink selection, the wine list, and the menu have all shrunk in the downtown bars and restaurants. There is almost no live entertainment anymore in any of the bars and restaurants. The most you get is maybe a piano player or a pick up band playing for tips. A once lively after work social scene barely exists when the Legislature is in session and doesn’t exist at all when it isn’t here. To the extent that high-dollar houses are selling at all, they’re selling to people outside for investments or for summer homes. You can’t give a boat of any size away. A boat suitable for entertaining not so long ago was the standard accoutrement of any high-level officer or employee, lobbyist, or political player. That market simply doesn’t exist anymore (That’s a particular sore-point for me since I’d really like to sell my gas guzzling planing hull cruiser to some director or commissioner who would use it to entertain and to boat in stolen moments with a high-speed boat so I could have a nice, slow, roomy displacement hull boat.) There’s only one year-round jewelry store in town now. There’s no Men’s Clothing store anymore and only one Women’s Clothing. The only full-line department store is a chain store and the chain is now liquidating in Ch. 7. A successor is unlikely, so that’s some more empty retail space. There are two “malls” here, both of which are half empty. If you’re going to buy clothing here now, its Fred Meyer, WalMart, or online. The GM dealer is gone now and the Chryler dealer has moved his emphasis to Subarus and other imports. The Ford dealer sells almost exclusively pickups and used. The cultural amenities like concerts and live theatre are still here because they’re still hanging on to public money, but they too are strapped for private subscription and, frankly, aren’t long for this world because the lefties who love them can’t or won’t support them.

That’s what happens to an affluent town of 30, 000 people when you remove only a couple hundred of the highest earning people from the economy.

The other option out there, the one we are “striving” for, is to become less productive and earn less money. Within 2 years we hope to cut our income by 50% or more. Naturally, this means we will have less to contribute to the economy. No new car, no major purchases (hell, no minor purchases), fewer dinners out, fewer trips to the movies, shorter less expensive vacations (if any). Which naturally means fewer manufacting jobs, fewer tourism jobs AND less tax revenue (income, sales, hotel, air fare, gasoline, etc) for Feds and State governments. Which quite naturally will lead to higher deficits, fewer services and …. what do you know, higher taxes.

We could barely keep up with the taxes as they are now. My kids college money will be cashed out and sent to the IRS this year. Ah, the joys of being “rich”.

They want to turn us into little urban islands of backyard farmers and village craftsmen closely managed by a “benevolent” local apparatus that poo-poos competition and stifles advancement…just like the Middle Ages or the Soviet Union of 20 years ago. This seems to be all fine and dandy with many of my neighbors.

The Chicoms are more capitalist than we are. The Euro-socialists are more fiscally responsible than we are.

The capitalist in me really wants to take advantage of opportunity out there…but all my capital is being sucked up by the IRS.

To fight, stop producing. That’s it. Thinking about opening up a new restaurant this year? Don’t. Board up the doors on your construction business for a couple years and take a job at Walmart. Cut your R&D department in half. Cut your whole staff in half and only accept half as many jobs.

If you think you’re fighting by producing more, you’re a fool. That’s like fighting mosquitoes by trying to ignore them. You may not feel them biting you as much in the short-term, but two weeks from now you’ll be regretting you fed the parasites.

There is something to be said for fighting within the system and I encourage it. But feeding the disease isn’t going to make us any stronger or the disease any weaker. Be sure to read Bill Whittle’s “Message to the Rich” linked above. He has a powerful lesson for the welfare state.

while statists consider leaving in search of socialism. Alec Baldwin and a host of useful idiots come to mind.