H/T Washington Post
Washington Times and Stephen Moore put together a piece showing migration out of high tax states and migration into low tax states.
The least “regressive” tax states had average population growth from 2003 to 2013 that lagged below the national trend. The 10 most highly “regressive” tax states, including nine with no state income tax, had population growth on average 4 percent above the U.S. average. Why was that? Because states without income taxes have twice the job growth of states with high tax rates. Unlike the experts at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, most Americans think that fairness means having a job.
Read the rest here.
With a so called “booming” stock market states pension systems are still getting worse. Decades of shady accounting practices and too many promises have made pensions almost broke.
In Pennsylvania there is talk of pension reform after one startling find recently. Here is more from IndianaGazette.com:
Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale warned Friday that the growing collective municipal pension debt in the commonwealth, if allowed to worsen, will become a problem for every Pennsylvanian.
“We found 46 percent of the municipal pension plans in Pennsylvania … are in some level of distress,” DePasquale said. “Certainly the bigger dollar amounts are in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. … Scranton is very bad.”
Researchers at the National Taxpayers Union Foundation did a study on lost productivity in America due to our tax code. Washington Times published an article on it entitled “U.S. economy out $233.8 billion due to ‘lost productivity’ as Americans wrestle with taxes: Study”
An interesting number was in the study concerning the amount of pages Obamacare takes up on the IRS website:
the researchers also found a “staggering” 3,322 pages of legal guidance for the Affordable Care Act at the IRS website. The content includes regulations, Treasury decisions, assorted notices, revenue procedures, and revenue rulings.
As far as the study of our tax code, here are some sad numbers:
The study also notes that the estimated length of the Tax Code itself is about 4 million words. The study grimly recalls that the Form 1040 instructions were once just two pages long. “Today, taxpayers must wade through 209 pages of instructions, quadruple the number in 1985, the year before taxes were simplified,” it states.
There are 76 wineries in the Hoosier state. Indiana produces 1.4 million gallons of wine a year, but it grows only 650 acres of grapes.
H/T TheStarPress.com
Via Steve Hanke, Cato Institute –
Venezuela has the dubious honor of registering the world’s highest inflation rate. According to my estimate, the annual implied inflation rate in Venezuela is 252%.
The only other country in which this rate is in triple digits is Ukraine, where the inflation rate is 111%. The only encouraging thing to say about Ukraine’s shocking figure is that it’s an improvement over my February 24th estimate of 272%
I took a look at some Walmart store expansion numbers to see where the company is expanding. This is current data from February 2015.
First lets go overseas where they are ramping up in South Africa
The current U.S. data is where I found the college campus expansion numbers.
Here is more about the recent growth on college campuses via INSIDE Higher Ed –
In January 2011, Walmart opened its first location on a university campus at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, a half-hour drive from its corporate headquarters. Now, Walmart has announced that it will be opening a second campus location, at Arizona State University, with luck by May, according to Delia Garcia, a Walmart spokeswoman. A third location, at Georgia Tech, is slated to open at a to-be-determined time next year. “Walmart on campus is an opportunity to bring low prices to students, reach new customers and serve our on-campus customers in a convenient way,” Garcia said in an interview.
Illegals crossing the border and entering into American society is still happening even though media doesn’t talk about it. American politicians on all levels are very accepting of people coming into this country with no reprecussions. This is a real political philosophy being acted out. Here are some recent headlines in the news….
–Illegal alien who has been deported numerous times kills American
–California drivers license for illegal immigrants more than doubles expectations
The Blaze.com brings a story from Brooks County, Texas and their story of how many bodies of illegal immigrants they have cleaned up and total cost the county has asorbed doing this task.
Martinez said many of the people who try to dodge the checkpoint don’t make it. He said more than 400 bodies have been found in the last six and a half years. “We estimate that we recover less than half of all those who perish,” he said. “From 2008 to 2014 the Brooks County has spent almost $700,000 for body recoveries.”
The financial cost is big but the human cost of finding all these bodies is astonishing to me in the sense of where Brooks County, Texas is located.
This isn’t just right on the border where it can be brushed away as something trivial. This is 70 miles inside the United States with an expectation the body count actually being double. Along with the job of cleaning up bodies, deputies are reporting gunfire at them from Mexican drug cartels who are more aggressive.
This is all happening 70 miles INSIDE the United States…….
Via People.com –
Gary Dahl, the man who became a millionaire by selling ordinary rocks, died on March 23 at the age of 78.
Dahl, an advertising copywriter, thought up the Pet Rock in 1975, after listening to friends complain about having to care for actual pets. The Pet Rock became an unlikely fad through Christmas that year. They sold for $4 each, and Dahl became a millionaire by the time the product was discontinued in February 1976.
Hoosier Econ 