The Laffer curve is not funny for those whose refuse to acknowledge its truth.
It’s not like history is absent of lessons to be learned from bad fiscal policy and oppressive taxation.
The people in charge are either stupid or just don’t care about the consequences.
Contributing states like Texas (net contributor) will get fed up with having to bail out the failed social engineering policies of other states. As long as things are okay nothing will happen.
But when the collapse affects the daily lives of people there will be a reckoning.
It is as predictable as the law of gravity.
The only question is when, how, the cost, and what will be left in the aftermath.
I’m admittedly not smart enough to answer those questions but I am smart enough to know its coming and I need to be prepared to survive or be at the mercy of FEMA, DHS, etc.
This is a true story...in Germany back around twelve years ago...the liberal democratic gov’t had decided that they’d raise the taxes on cigarettes...in a two phase approach. It’s not a minor tax hike....it’s very significant in nature. On one side, the tax revenue folks who desperately need more cash in the tax bucket for the government to survive, and the other side are the health folks who want enough taxes to pursue folks to quit smoking.
Well...they get around eight months into this new taxation period, and nearing where phase two of a hike would occur. Suddenly there’s an emergency meeting of the tax revenue folks and the leadership of the Chancellor’s office. There’s a major problem.
The money they typically take in for eight months....is around thirty percent less than they anticipated. It’s a huge drop in revenue. At the one year point, it might be near forty percent less tax revenue than they were aiming for. They need solutions and answers quick.
The health guys stand up and say that the high tax rise was enough to make people quit buying German smokes (evident by fewer cigarettes sold). Full speed ahead for them.
But then, the customs people speak up and admit they’ve been catching thousands of people bringing in cheaper cigarette cartons from Poland, Luxembourg, etc. Some guys were bringing in thousands of cartons which had been slipped into ports with no taxation and were being brought into a new German black market.
Suddenly, it was obvious that the increased tax rate deal had backfired and they made a quick decision not to implement phase two. They instead tried to put more emphasis into stopping the black market and hope to bring the tax losses back into the normal range.
It’s been a decade now....and there’s still lots of illegal cigarettes being brought into Germany....avoiding the taxes entirely. They lost billions over that decade period from their tax revenue practice. No one will admit it was a stupid move....but they’ve had to raise taxes on other things...to make up for this loss.
“Obviously, they didn’t raise taxes enough. /sarc “
You don’t need the “/sarc” tag.
This -is- “obvious” to the leftists running the state. (From their point of view)
Fearless prediction:
California taxes are destined to be raised higher.
FAR higher...
Will you stop it. If you say that enough people might actually start thinking that we have a spending problem.
We need more REVENUE!!!!
Ans: What Krugman will say.
Liberals and Marxist don’t have the ability to learn from experience...in other words they are stupid and there ain’t no cure for stupid.....they just make misery...