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Remote work changed things for folks making low-mid six figures, who are mostly not the target of “tax the rich.” It changed nothing for folks pulling down 7+ figures, who are the targets of it. They always had the freedom to work wherever and whenever they wanted.
I feel like this is the problem with these discussions. People don't really understand the difference between how 95%+ of people make money and pay taxes vs. how people who are affected by these laws obtain wealth.
We are clearly to know our place and shut up lest our betters get their feelings hurt.
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eig.org
missionlocal.org
Tax Data Reveals Large Flight of High Earners from Major Cities During the Pandemic
Newly-released IRS data shows taxable income in large urban counties fell by more than $68 billion between 2020 and 2021 from net migration alone.
Interestingly, major declines of taxable income in large urban counties in 2021 were mainly driven by a handful of the very largest coastal cities that saw, in some cases, staggering flights of income. Manhattan alone lost more than $16 billion in federally-taxable income (spread across more than 37,000 returns) through net migration, equivalent to more than 13 percent of remaining residents’ combined taxable incomes.
$16B a year divided across 37,000 returns would average out to about $430k/year which falls in with your "mid six figures" number (though some were higher, some were lower)
When proposals like this are floated:
Why Zohran Mamdani is threatening to soak the middle class if he can't tax the rich | Fortune
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani threatens middle-class homeowners with a 9.5% tax hike if Gov. Kathy Hochul doesn’t raise income taxes on top earnersfortune.com
...threatening city homeowners with a 9.5% property tax hike should the governor decline to raise income taxes on people making 7-figures, is certainly going to impact the people in that six-figure area, and inspire them to leave.
First, most of the truly wealthy are taxed lower on capital gains than they are on income. The rich too receive no tax on their more hefty benefit packages and the new child accounts certainly allow those who can fund these accounts to the max. The poor too often receive credits, EIC, Savers, etc. So there is a lot to clean up to get to a "proportional tax." As it is the middle class get squeezed. The government too gets revenue from fees. A rich person and poor person pay the same for their passport for instance, the same for speeding fines, the same for all kinds of government services from license fees, airport fees etc. A proportional tax would charge those fees on based on income, including fees for Medicare. (Medicare does charge the wealthy more) but this is not exactly proportional.
...and... it makes people want to move away because it carries the same tone as an abusive father who says "sorry, but your brother made me so angry I had to slap you because I was mad, so you should really be upset with them for making me so mad that I had to do that"
I thought Mamdani's preferred method was to use a higher tax rate for the part of the income exceeding some threshold. If we are going to do thought experiments why not use the one that someone wants to do?
You honestly think the guy making $5M a year at a pharma company is the same one developing the next big cancer drug?
In other words, you feel taxation on a scale that increases with net worth is justified. I'm feeling mean enough this morning to hope your state and local government does just that. The trouble with this sort of logic is that eventually the other person's money runs out, either because they left or because they went broke.
