You Can’t Escape a Digital Dollar

By STUDIO DREAM @ Shutterstock.com

You don’t need to dig too hard to see how big states want to keep you locked in. That’s why Your Survival Guy wants you to find your Super State. The digital dollar is their collar.

In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, James Freeman highlights Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s calls to make New York even worse for wealthy residents in an attempt to make the city more affordable. He writes:

For the city specifically, the Post’s Katherine Donlevy reported in May:

New York City’s population is continuing to flounder in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic — and most city-dwellers have flocked to southern states, new data shows.

The US Census Bureau revealed Thursday that the Big Apple’s population is 5.3% lower than it was when the novel coronavirus first hit the country. Over 468,200 people fled the city between April 2020 and July 2022.

The congresswoman’s call to attempt to solve the problem by making life even more expensive for the wealthiest New Yorkers is not necessarily what it seems. In the age of inflation times are tough all over and now with fewer New Yorkers around to tax, socialists have been expanding the population of wallets they aim to plunder. Tim Hoefer of the Empire Center for Public Policy wrote for the Journal in October:

Bemoaning “violent budget cuts” at New York City agencies, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her ideological allies are calling on the city and state to “fund resources for all New Yorkers” by raising taxes on the top 5% of New Yorkers. Considering the left’s prior focus on “the 1%,” this is a major development.

The top 1% of New Yorkers begins just south of $1 million in adjusted gross income. But the top 5% begins a little above $250,000—translating into married couples making $127,000 each.

Mr. Hoefer also highlighted the unlikelihood that more tax revenue would be well spent:

New York has the nation’s highest-spending K-12 public-school system, but student outcomes are middling. The state spends more on Medicaid than Texas and Florida combined. New York agencies also pay some of the world’s highest prices for infrastructure. More hasn’t been, nor will it ever be, enough.

Some may regard it as a hopeless project to encourage Rep. Ocasio-Cortez to embrace policies to make the city more affordable, and perhaps it is. But a debate on whether government policies are providing a greater relocation incentive to those with modest incomes or high incomes is exactly the conversation New York City needs.

Action Line: When you tax something, you get less of it. Progressives seem to understand this concept when it comes to cigarettes or oil use, but not productivity or wealth. Now imagine that even after you fled a high-tax state, you were subject to taxes from that state via your digitized dollars held by the Federal Reserve. You could never escape being forced to fund the bad policies of places like New York or California. Click here to subscribe to my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter.

The following two tabs change content below.

• Bio
• Latest Posts

E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

E.J. Smith is Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. His focus at all times is on preparing clients and readers for “Times Like These.” E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zildjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart (RIP) of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West (RIP JB) and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com To sign up for my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter, click here.

Latest posts by E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy (see all)

• Do You Look Marvelous? See My Friend Marc - September 13, 2024
• Kitten Update This Week - September 13, 2024
• Dershowitz Decries “Hard Left” Hijacking of Democratic Party - September 13, 2024
• September RAGE Gauge: Win Friends and Influence People - September 12, 2024
• Stay Diversified My Friends - September 12, 2024