Well, That Settles It; Tax the Rich

My fellow right-wingers, I suppose we must rearrange our thinking. The governor of New York has spoken with some rich people, and they have assured him that they will not leave the state as a result. Clearly, taxation has no effect on the domestic decisions that wealthy families make.

I apologize if there's a nagging something — a poor choice of words, perhaps — that leaves me unable to disregard my prior suspicions entirely:

On Thursday, Mr. Paterson said his views on this matter had not changed. But fiscal and political realities had. And thus he yielded to fellow Democrats who insisted on raising the tax rate for the state's highest earners — up to 8.97 percent for those making $500,000 or more.

So if we correctly understood past warnings from the governor and the mayor, we should soon witness a mass exodus of the wealthy to other states, right? Well, maybe not quite, Mr. Paterson told reporters after his speech. He had spoken with rich people. "A lot of them said they're going to stay," he said, and "ride out this storm."

"Riding out a storm" is something that one does when the storm is expected to pass. The implementation of permanent principles of higher taxation are quite another matter, and New York should not be surprised if its unnamed fat cats renege on their pledge and quietly shift their full-year residencies elsewhere.

(via RI Future)