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Only certain types of rich people can pick up and move like that, though. Moving to a new country or even a new city means leaving behind the business connecti

Only certain types of rich people can pick up and move like that, though. Moving to a new country or even a new city means leaving behind the business connections and infrastructure they've built over the course of years and years. You'd have to be one of the idle rich or work in an industry that is location-independent and knowledge-based. That doesn't describe most rich people. You're absolutely right about the ability of the rich to buy their way to the front of the immigration line, I just don't see it happening in significant numbers.

dllthomas 13y ago
Sometimes the money can move instead of the people.
- fennecfoxen 13y ago
  Sometimes even if the money doesn't move away directly, some entirely unrelated money ends up somewhere else building factories, and then somewhere-else starts competing with you and taking away large slices of your business.
  - dllthomas 13y ago
    Sure, but that has less to do with tax rates.
    - fennecfoxen 13y ago
      Depends on how much the tax rates raise the price of labor or impair profitability (and limiting future investment on account of a lack of return).
      - dllthomas 13y ago
        I'm not saying tax rates have no impact; obviously they can. But taxes levied to addressed collective action problems, where people are actually seeing a return on the taxes paid for things they'd have to fund otherwise, should in fact make labor cheaper. This is also usually dwarfed by things like exchange rates, wages (possibly including minimum wage laws), cost of living, and labor laws - most of which also have interconnections. It's no longer a simple equation in the way that "Hm, my money will be taxed less in that pile than this one" is.
csense 13y ago
The rich may not physically move their bodies, but what about moving business operations to tax-friendly locations? Especially if you only do it on paper? What about the flight of manufacturing from the US, c. 1980-2000?

dllthomas 13y ago

Sometimes the money can move instead of the people.

fennecfoxen 13y ago
Sometimes even if the money doesn't move away directly, some entirely unrelated money ends up somewhere else building factories, and then somewhere-else starts competing with you and taking away large slices of your business.
- dllthomas 13y ago
  Sure, but that has less to do with tax rates.
  - fennecfoxen 13y ago
    Depends on how much the tax rates raise the price of labor or impair profitability (and limiting future investment on account of a lack of return).
    - dllthomas 13y ago
      I'm not saying tax rates have no impact; obviously they can. But taxes levied to addressed collective action problems, where people are actually seeing a return on the taxes paid for things they'd have to fund otherwise, should in fact make labor cheaper. This is also usually dwarfed by things like exchange rates, wages (possibly including minimum wage laws), cost of living, and labor laws - most of which also have interconnections. It's no longer a simple equation in the way that "Hm, my money will be taxed less in that pile than this one" is.

csense 13y ago

The rich may not physically move their bodies, but what about moving business operations to tax-friendly locations? Especially if you only do it on paper? What about the flight of manufacturing from the US, c. 1980-2000?