Voting With Your Feet

CBN News is reporting today that when the British government changed the tax rate on millionaires to 50 percent, wealth left the country. Wow! What a surprise.

The article reports:

The London Telegraph reports that 16,000 British citizens declared an annual income of more than a million pounds in the 2009-2010 tax year.

That number fell to just 6,000 after the government introduced the new top tax rate of 50 percent.

Analysts believe many Brits simply moved out of the country to avoid the high taxes. Others found ways to cut their taxable income.

The article further reports:

Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, a member of the new Conservative Party majority, announced the top tax rate will be reduced to 45 percent next year for those with annual incomes of 150,000 pounds.

Since that announcement, the number of people making a million pounds a year has gone back up.

Tax revenue in the United States generally averages between 18 and 20 percent of the Gross Domestic Product. When you increase the taxes on the rich, tax revenue in the United States generally averages between 18 and 20 percent of the Gross Domestic Product. There is a lesson here. Attempting to ‘punish’ the rich for their success does not work. Aside from the fact that envy is not a particularly desirable trait in anyone, it does not make good economic policy. Our budget problems in America are not the result of low revenue–they are the result of high spending. Traditionally government spending has averaged between 18 and 20 percent of the Gross Domestic Product. Under President Obama it has averaged closer to 25 percent. That has created a problem. The solution to the problem is less spending–not more taxes.

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