Emulating the captain of the Titanic, the progressives command, "Dam the icebergs, full steam ahead." Failure is not an option with the left, if you are myopic, enough.
"One liberal economic think tank — the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy — recently issued a report on the states with the most and least “regressive” tax systems. The conclusion was that states should raise their income taxes on the rich to be more “fair.” Except it turns out that people are leaving the states that the think tank ranks as fair, and they are moving to the states the think tank ranks as economically backward.
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.
Ohio University economist Richard Vedder and I compared the income gap in states with higher tax rates, higher minimum wages and more welfare benefits with states on the other side of the policy spectrum. There was no evidence that states with these liberal policies had helped the poor much and, in many cases, these states recorded more income inequality than other states as measured by the left’s favorite statistic called the Gini Coefficient.
The 19 states with minimum wages above the $7.25 per hour federal minimum do not have lower income inequality. States with a super minimum wage — such as Connecticut ($9.15), California ($9.00), New York ($8.75), and Vermont ($9.15) — have significantly wider gaps between rich and poor than states without a super minimum wage.
States are supposed to be laboratories of democracy, right? These laboratories are providing us with concrete evidence that Robin Hood policies don’t help make the poor richer, they make most people poorer. In other words, the blue states have tried the Elizabeth Warren “progressive” agenda and people are voting with their feet by fleeing in droves. The kinds of income redistribution policies that Ms. Warren and others endorse can only work by building a Berlin Wall so no one can leave — though I hope I’m not giving them any ideas."
http://www.washingtontimes.com...ing-high-tax-states/
As a reminder, Alabama is a medium level wage state, not a low wage state, as an article in the TD showed.
"University of North Alabama Economics Instructor David Black said income distributions are relative to the economy, and the perception Alabama is a low income state is a fallacy.
“Our economy is actually very diverse with manufacturing and various other sectors,” Black said. “The perception is that we’re a low wage state but that’s (contingent) on the skill set of the labor supply. It’s not unreasonable to think Alabama is doing pretty well economically, even though the national economy remains pretty stagnant.”
http://www.timesdaily.com/news...82-3701a9024601.html