Human beings follow economic incentives and move to places where taxes are lower and they have more opportunities, despite the fact that politicians act as though they can raise taxes perpetually without consequences. According to a new poll, 36 percent of New Yorkers younger than 30 says they’re planning to leave because of high taxes and lack of economic opportunities.
This is mildly interesting on its face, but its implications are much more potentially useful. What if those who believe in real freedom could set up an enclave where taxes are low or non-existent. Could such a place work the economic miracle that’s promised by free market economists? What if it were a place where income weren’t taxed and people simply paid for the services they used? What if that enclave were run as a profit-making enterprise? Would it still be cheaper than living in a high-tax city and would it still provide better opportunities?
The answer to these questions is complex. It depends on where it was, what it looked like, what the cost was and who else it attracted, among other things. But for years, we have only looked at a model of cities being run by majority vote. Isn’t it time to look at other models? There are many other questions to consider, but for now just consider this. What we have now is failing. We haven’t really tried other systems. Isn’t it time we started thinking about how to try some other options?
I have some other thoughts about this, but I’ll save them for another time. Do you have any thoughts about other models that might work? And do you have any thoughts about how they could conceivably be tried?