There Must Be 50 Ways to Leave Your City

There is an active revolution going on today where overly burdened taxpayers all over America have made decision to get out of Dodge. Some may refer to this as a systematic relocation of convenience or a net out-bound migration. “Get out of Dodge” means to vacate an area(s), especially areas that may contain impending troublesome situations like increased taxation and overly burdensome regulations, and looting & destruction of these communities by the anarchists.

The idiom came from the television show Gunsmoke western drama that aired from 1952 to 1975. Gunsmoke aired on the radio and eventually television. It depicted the early days in Dodge City, Kansas, during the thriving cattle runs of the 1870s. Marshall Dillon (James Arness) and his sidekick, Chester (Dennis Weaver) and/or (Festus) Ken Curtis as were always confronted with cattle and property rustlers, cowboy shoot-um-ups, gamblers, and pretty women. Miss Kitty (Amanda Blake) and Doc (Milburn Stone) were always in toe to save the day after the shoot-up or to assist in the takedown of the bad guys. The series always pitted good guys against bad guys. Cattle rustlers, murderers, gamblers, and property hustlers were always there to disrupt the otherwise tranquil lifestyle portrayed in the peaceful town of Dodge City. Somehow there was a thrill and excitement of watching good guys chase bad guys, which always contained a shoot-um-up or a systematic take down. The good guys always prevailed in the end. That was the way we grew up in the 1950s and 1960s. Good always prevailed back then. How times have changed!

The second reference relates to the classic song written, produced, and sung by Paul Simon entitled “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover.” It was written in response to Paul’s divorce from his wife. Pretty creative, I must say!

"The problem is all inside your head," she said to me

"The answer is easy if you take it logically

I'd like to help you in your struggle to be free

There must be fifty ways to leave your lover"

She said, “it’s really not my habit to intrude

Furthermore, I hope my meaning won’t be lost or misconstrued

But I’ll repeat myself at the risk of being crude

There must be fifty ways to leave your lover

Fifty ways to leave your lover”

Well, I am not as creative, but here is my attempt.

“There Must Be 50 Ways to Leave Your City!”

Don’t be shy Guy

Just quit your job, Bob

Dump your jerk of a boss, Ross

Rent a U-Haul trailer Taylor

Or, Rent a Penske truck, Chuck

Or hop on a metro train Jane

Drive down South Street, Pete

Move out of your house with your spouse

Bring your pets and listen to cassettes on your way out of this filthy rout.

Leave your cities’ debts and avoid the taxman’s threats

Think no pity for your cesspool city that you left behind

City leaders who created the mess will always attempt to find a fix by pulling some budgeting tricks.

Their solution will always be a redistribution of taxpayers’ income and assets.

If government increases your tax, moving out will be the climax.

Keep your income and assets outside out of reach of the tax authority leech.

Of course, the reference that I am talking about is about 50 ways to move out of your city and state and relocate to some other more socially and economically desirable place. For me, I want to move to a location that respects the values of language, borders, culture, rule of law, family, tradition, individual responsibility, and self-sufficiency. Also, I want a location that does not consider my family and me as their tax donkeys.

The current net outbound migration by financially successful folks in progressive leaning cities and states is irreversible because all governing solutions lead to the same result. Tax, spend and regulate more. Soak the rich, otherwise known as soak the financially responsible!

I refuse to subordinate every aspect of my life up to a government of unelected bureaucrats who constantly pass irresponsible financially and individually punitive laws to control my every move or action. The only way to function within their scheme is to pay them a fee for your every movement. They call it an administrative fee. I call it an extortion fee, in most cases. One may view these as extortion fees like fees paid to the mob for the privilege of not being harassed or tormented. Or, perhaps one may be delighted to pay more fees because that is what they are voting for?

In most all cases the cities and states where the governing bodies are controlled by massive government employee labor union bureaucrats are the ones where we are seeing a mass taxpayer exodus. Public employees possess a monopoly on governance and make 100% more income that comparable private sector jobs. There are 22 million of them in the US with another 20 million of them retired living on luxurious pension plans, sometimes referred to as “Cadillac Plans.” Of course, public employee pension plans are actually upside down about $7 trillion. That means they have created a shortfall of required obligations to fund future retires. They knowingly used fraudulent actuarial(s) for planning future financial obligations of the retirement programs of public bureaucrats. They did that all while intending to demand a federal bailout or increased taxation, thinking politicians would rush in with a bailout scheme to buy their votes. Progressive politicians have every intention of funding this shortage by dumping the losses on the backs of the taxpayers.

Large progressive leaning cities all over America are under water. The characteristics of these cities are as follows:

• Massive and authoritarian bureaucratic public employee government bodies with monopoly status which regulates every aspect of the city’s occu’pants’ lives and expects to be paid for from the same regulated taxpaying public. They are established themselves as a fourth branch of the federal government without constitutional authority. Every movement requires an application, approval process and a fee to the administrative state.
• Massive public employee labor union domination with collective bargaining contracts. Because they are a monopoly, they are not required to bargain against anyone else except themselves.
• Massive underfunding of pension obligations. Nationally the underfunding is appx $7 trillion with California along estimated to be at least $1 Trillion. For California, this short fall constitutes about $83,500 per taxpaying family. The expectation is always to charge more taxes to make up for underfunding, but never to cut back on the number of public employees, ask public employees to fund more into their pension plan, or change the fraudulent method of determining required future financial needs obligations that always end up in a shortfall.
• Calif Government has passed Assembly Bill 5 to force independent contractors to become W-2 employees for the purpose of becoming unionizes. If successful, this will substantially increase labor union members and therefore increase dues and raise money for the shortfall.
• Massive complex regulatory scheme and almost universal unionization of workers will make it difficult for any private entrepreneur and enterprises to function other that massively large corporations.
• Massive welfare and indigent populations that demand to receive a reasonable quality of life but pay little or nothing to receive it.
• Classes of takers who consume more than they pay in taxation always outnumber the classes of taxpayers so that cities are often financially underwater. The solution by the governing elites is to always raise taxes but never cut back on expensing.
• Most of the city tax receipts go into a combination of the salaries and benefit packages of the bureaucrats and the recipients of the welfare state.
• Infrastructure upgrades and repeat maintenance are usually deferred or lacking.
• These cities are always congested, full of crime, poor schools, poor social environments, and homelessness because most of the occupants end up on the dole to receive public benefits.
• The end game is that the tax base is always insufficient to pay for all the demanded benefits and the whole system collapses. Unsustainability is now coming home to roost.
• This top 20% of the taxpayers can always count on more taxes, more regulation, more crime, more demand for transfer payments from them to the administrative and welfare states, and a progressively lower quality of life, until the day that they refuse to take it anymore and decide to relocate.
• The class, referred to as “Tax Donkeys,” consists of average taxpayers who work to support government and get little back in the form of representation or corresponding benefits. Tax Donkeys are packing up and leaving Dodge.
• Because the folks, sometimes referred to as the productive class, or Tax Donkeys, have the wherewithal to get the hell out of Dodge, this massive wealth transfer scheme will always collapse.
• This is exactly what is going on today all over America because the productive taxpayer classes are refusing to be financially exploited out of existence.

Why are so many financially successful people leaving California? The great exodus of successful people is underway and is irreversible. Here are just a few reasons:

• Highest state tax rate in the nation at 13.3% with current proposals to increase it up to 16.8%
• High sales and use tax rate of 7.25% Local jurisdictions may add an additional 1% making the effective sales tax rate 8.25% and even higher.
• California government leadership continuously outspends available incoming tax dollars, resulting in massive annual deficits. Only 10 years ago the state budget was $88 billion. Today the state budget is to be proposed by Gov. Gavin Newsom $222 billion. With the fallout of COVID, economic disruption will cause significant reduction in state revenues and increased budget deficits of between $85-100 billion.
• California Public Employee Pension cost are soaring into the stratosphere rendering 100’s of cities going broke or already in bankrupt status. Misguided politically powerful leaders will always choose to increase the fiefdom as the answer.
• California leadership will always attempt to soak the rich or tax paying public to cover available deficits rather than cut back on spending or reduce the size and intrusion of government.
• In all cases the decision is to increase taxation (property, income taxes, sales) and expand punitive and rules fines ends up being transferred to businesses and consumers in the form of higher prices and more regulations. Higher taxes and punitive regulations correspondingly reduce quality of life and reduce personal freedoms.
• Progressive governments exist with a “soak the rich” mentality. There are continuous new schemes presented to extort money from financially productive people.
• California government constantly focuses on penalizing financial success to redistribute hard-earned dollars and assets to the administrative class (government workers) and non-productive class (welfare class).
• With the highest welfare population in the nation. 34% of all Californians are on some form of government transfer payments, even though California only has 12% of the national population.
• Constant new laws either passed or are in the process to take away legal rights, contract rights and property rights and replace them with redistributive statutes & regulations.
• In 2019 alone 2,576 new bills were introduced, designed to control every aspect of our lives. California’s legislature is full time. Wyoming on the other hand is a true part-time citizen legislature. Less time to pilfer!
• Most public service announcements and government notices are presented in a form of punitive and threatening manner.
• How about city congestion, forced high density, substandard education, city blight, crime, and failure to improve physical infrastructure?
• Passing regulations that encourage crime such as the new regulation which allows criminals to steal up to $950 of goods without the threat of arrest or prosecution. Losses by retail stores must be absorbed by increasing costs to responsible consumers. In the town of Looter-ville everything is free! Freely being able to Loot (Shoplift) will become a grand enterprise for masses of the morally bankrupt.
• Now, the California governor wants a new surcharge on wealthy persons called the “millionaire tax,” or “wealth tax.” Various “socialist” proposals are now under consideration. AB 1253 would tax surcharges of 1% on incomes (jointly or single) for between $1 million and $2 million, and 3% on incomes between $2 million and $5 million, and $3.5% on incomes greater than $5 million. This socialist scheme may increase one’s state tax obligation up to 16.8%.
• Since the wealthiest 1% pay 50% of state taxes, what would happen if they refused to be exploited and just left the state. Available tax revenue would crash by 50%.
• Lawmakers are now considering new legislation called the “Local Government and School Recovery and Relief Act,” by proposing to tax companies of more than 500 employees a head tax of $275 for each person. This is nothing more than a tax on jobs.
• All low-cost housing projects sound like a good idea. Until you figure out that they are not low at all. A unit can cost $500,000 and made available to lower income folks on a can-afford basis. What is hidden here is that the sale of a low-cost unit must be subsidized by others who can afford and are willing to pay a premium above market. Also, with the Coronavirus disruption leading to significant job losses, the demand for affordable rental housing will skyrocket. This is a massive socialist style redistribution of wealth.
• There are at least 10 bills in the Calif legislature currently active to prohibit, monitor, or penalize law enforcement for trying to protect the public. If we constrict law enforcement four things will happen: a) refusal to protect the public for fear of reprisal b) creates plunging morale within the law enforcement community c) reduces the motivation to enter into the profession d) increased work force attrition do to early requirement and quitting their jobs. You may review AB 66, AB 329, AB 767, AB 846, AB 1022, AB 1196, AB 1299, AB 1314, AB 1472, AB 1506, AB 1652, AB 1709, SB 629, SB 731, SB 776, SB 1220.  The bottom line is that handcuffs are being redirected away from the criminals to employees of law enforcement agencies. Too bad that we do not have the same pushback against overly burdensome government regulations and intrusions into our lives.
• San Francisco Rent Control board, which is a government agency paid for by property owners, now engages tenant/landlord regulations down to minute details of tenancy.
• Just think, government bureaucrat labor union members are now in the business of acting as an intermediary between property owners and renters. Did you ever think you, as a private capitalist property owner, would be subject to government intervention relating to rent increases, handling repairs, just-cause-evictions, evictions of undesirable tenants and/or roommates, subletting responsibilities while attempting to transfer and convey from one tenant to the next? The same goes for replacement roommates, regulating heat and air-conditioning requirements, noise attenuation, or extortive tenant buyouts to get rid of a flakey non-paying tenant, and regulatory standards for security deposits. Any action requested by this rent control agency or action taken comes with a hefty fee paid to the bureaucratic board. This is not a representation of capitalist private enterprise but an intrusive totalitarian government intervention. Private property rights have been sublimated to the state. This whole process becomes a matter of how many government regulatory obligations and corresponding liability risks are forcefully assumed where all the potential upside to financial benefits have been stolen or confiscated from you.
• The most important reason to leave California comes with the ability of workers to perform their job assignments remotely. Online access changes the job dynamic on a massive scale. Remote access to servers and packages such as Go-To-Meeting and Zoom now allow workers to be as equally productive in their home office as they were in the office. So much for office space in the future!
• Socialist/Marxist regimes strictly control who has permission to enter and leave the country, but Americans still retain that option for now. Why are voters so willing to vote in more regulations, taxes in all forms, wealth confiscation, and diminishment of freedoms?

I am working on an article that will compare the ultimate tax burden for a successful W-2 employee who grosses $1,000,000 per year pre-tax. I will compare 3 states, the 2 highest taxation and high regulatory states of California and New York, and the low tax and less regulatory state of Wyoming. I happened to really appreciate Wyoming as a State of free men and free will.

The purpose of this comparison is to show how much more monthly net spendable income one would have by moving to a tax friendly state such as Wyoming. Of course, the other option is to become an ex-pat (ex-patriot) and move out of the country. I have a friend who moved his family to Thailand and still functions online as a mortgage broker. The downside for him is the time zone differential. He is required to work at nights.

Dan Harkey

Business and Private Money Finance Consultant

Cell 949 533 8315

[email protected]

This article is intended for educational purposes only and is not a solicitation.

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