Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Shopping Around for a Better Life
Townhall.com ^ | January 23, 2013 | John Stossel

Posted on 01/22/2013 11:28:05 PM PST by Kaslin

Thanks, California! Thanks for your monstrous spending and absurd regulatory overreach! America needs you. We need Connecticut and Illinois, too! We need you the way we needed the Soviet Union, as models of failure, to warn us what happens if we believe those who say, "Government can."

Moving to California was once the dream for many Americans. Its population grew at almost triple the national average -- until 1990. Then big government, in the form of endless regulation and taxes, killed much of the dream. In the last decade, 2 million people left California.

Many of them moved to Alaska, Florida, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington or Wyoming. More on what makes those states special in a moment.

When the USSR died, overthrown by its own citizens' hatred of central planning, I assumed the world would acknowledge that big government is a nightmare. But people don't. Our brains are programmed to believe that "next time, central planning will help." So, many people forget the lesson of the USSR.

Fortunately, they can still watch what's happening right now in California, Illinois and Connecticut. OK, those states are not totalitarian dictatorships, but they tax and micromanage so much that they will soon approach bankruptcy, cut services and stagnate.

And Americans have an advantage Soviet citizens never had: 50 states. If we live in a big-government state, we can move. I did.

I grew up in Illinois. It was nice enough (except in winter). But gradually its politicians gave away its future.

I moved to New York City, no political paradise, but where the big TV news jobs are. And maybe New York's promises to unions won't bankrupt us too soon.

I could always move again. I would still be smothered by federal rules, but at least I can move to a place with fewer onerous state rules.

A group called the Free State Project invites us to move to New Hampshire to help create "liberty in our lifetime." It's too early to see how that will work out, but that state now has a booming population of libertarians and anarchists. One even got elected to the state legislature after running against his own roommate, also a libertarian, whom he accused of not being anti-government enough.

Americans who want to escape state income taxes and live near better job prospects can move to one of those nine states that I mentioned above.

It's no surprise they produce more jobs. Without an income tax, those states were forced to limit the growth of their governments, so they did. Every state has schools, social service programs, prisons, etc., but those states find a way to fund those things for less. Then they reap benefits.

Last decade, those nine states gained population and increased jobs by 4.9 percent; jobs in the rest of the states declined by 2.6 percent.

It's good that we have places like Texas and New Hampshire to which fed-up citizens can escape. In Europe, you'd have to leave your country to escape its worst laws.

French actor Gerard Depardieu just moved to Belgium to escape France's proposed 75 percent tax on the rich. Years ago, high taxes in Britain drove Rod Stewart to move to Los Angeles. But by 2010, California's taxes had risen, and Stewart moved back to England. (He doesn't claim the reason was taxes; he said his child could get a better education in England.)

Dan Mitchell of the Cato Institute summed up California's situation for me. "The politicians want to get re-elected, and the state government workers want to get as much as they can before the whole house of cards comes tumbling down. California is Greece -- the Greece of America."

I hope all Americans watch and learn from states like California. But if we don't, and if people keep electing big-government politicians, at least Americans, unlike the Greeks, can hop around between 50 states, trying to stay one step ahead of bad laws and ruin.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: biggovernment; california; jobsandeconomy; stateincometax

1 posted on 01/22/2013 11:28:15 PM PST by Kaslin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

I like Stossel. He just needs to understand that killing nascent life is NOT a libertarian principle; at least as far as the nascent human is concerned.


2 posted on 01/22/2013 11:33:27 PM PST by Gene Eric
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Gene Eric

Abortion is fundamental for libertarians, as is so much of the radical left’s agenda, I am glad that they agree with conservatives on some things though.


3 posted on 01/23/2013 12:33:50 AM PST by ansel12 (Cruz said "conservatives trust Sarah Palin that if she says this guy is a conservative, that he is")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

We need you the way we needed the Soviet Union, as models of failure, to warn us what happens if we believe those who say, “Government can.”

The problem is that we’re saddled with a president who has no inkling of, or interest in, the failings of the Soviet Union; he believes he can make America over into a communist state that “works.”

And, anyway, like the Soviet Union’s leaders of old, as long as he had his pricey dacha and his government pension, he cound’t care less what happens to America. He was raised and educated to despise the United States, anyway.


4 posted on 01/23/2013 2:32:09 AM PST by Jack Hammer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
a visual interpretation of the beauty of Detroit's urban environment
5 posted on 01/23/2013 2:34:25 AM PST by Berlin_Freeper (SOS)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

I was born in CA, moved to Alaska in 1992. Not a bad place to take refuge at, bit of a long winter and too short of a summer, oh and like Texas with its Austin problem we have liberalville Anchorage who thinks its the voice of Alaska.


6 posted on 01/23/2013 2:36:04 AM PST by Eye of Unk (AR2 2013 is the American Revolution part 2 of 2013)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ansel12

Abortion is NOT fundamental to libertarians, especially religious ones. Maybe the party has a pro-death platform, I don’t know. Then again, Libertarians don’t define libertarianism any more than Republicans define conservatism.


7 posted on 01/23/2013 3:22:12 AM PST by Tublecane
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

you do know that the socialist states receive federal funds, right?

you realize that those federal funds come from all the other states... right?

so you can move to Texas or Florida... but you’re still going to pay for those absurd lib state entitlement programs

I want to isolate Florida from the federal govt. only then will they figure out we mean business


8 posted on 01/23/2013 4:52:32 AM PST by sten (fighting tyranny never goes out of style)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ansel12

Abortion is fundamental for libertarians...


No it isn’t. Many libertarians believe that the unborn are innocent lives deserving protection from violence.


9 posted on 01/23/2013 6:23:38 AM PST by Atlas Sneezed (Hold My Beer and Watch This!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Beelzebubba; Tublecane

Abortion, the homosexual agenda, open borders, porn, drugs, homosexual marriage and other hard leftist sick ideas, are fundamental to libertarians and foundational for them.

People who find the libertarian agenda repulsive or in opposition to God, need to reconsider promoting them and their agenda, and proclaiming themselves as followers, libertarians who are Christians for instance, may find that they are conservatives not supporters of abortion and same sex marriage and homosexualizing the military, gay men adopting children, etc.

Sodom and Gomorrah would have consisted of liberals/libertarians, not conservatives.


10 posted on 01/23/2013 10:19:48 AM PST by ansel12 (Cruz said "conservatives trust Sarah Palin that if she says this guy is a conservative, that he is")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: ansel12

Hmmm... A non-(anti?)libertarian telling us what the libertarian agenda is...


11 posted on 01/23/2013 10:29:03 AM PST by Atlas Sneezed (Hold My Beer and Watch This!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Beelzebubba
Hmmm... A non-(anti?)libertarian telling us what the libertarian agenda is...

LOL, When I was first approached by libertarians 40 years ago, I didn't realize that there were internal secrets and secret handshakes.

I admit that my knowledge of libertarianism is limited to that which is available to the public, and in the public domain.

You cannot lie and pretend that libertarianism is a pro-life movement, conservatism is. The conservative agenda is to end abortion, the libertarian agenda is to preserve abortion and to make it completely restriction free, absolutely unrestrained.

12 posted on 01/23/2013 11:54:59 AM PST by ansel12 (Cruz said "conservatives trust Sarah Palin that if she says this guy is a conservative, that he is")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: ansel12

the libertarian agenda is to preserve abortion and to make it completely restriction free, absolutely unrestrained


So says a non-libertarian to this pro-life libertarian.


13 posted on 01/23/2013 12:57:19 PM PST by Atlas Sneezed (Hold My Beer and Watch This!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Beelzebubba

The libertarians formed a political party to put their beliefs into practice, naturally it calls for totally unrestrained abortion.

How do you not know that?


14 posted on 01/23/2013 1:22:25 PM PST by ansel12 (Cruz said "conservatives trust Sarah Palin that if she says this guy is a conservative, that he is")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Beelzebubba

Remember the other parts of the libertarian agenda as well, homosexualizing the military for example, and open borders, ending the Border Patrol and the INS, gay marriage, you signed up for quite an agenda.


15 posted on 01/23/2013 1:36:21 PM PST by ansel12 (Cruz said "conservatives trust Sarah Palin that if she says this guy is a conservative, that he is")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson