Atlas is shrugging

Want to know how to empty a city's braindump and watch it crumble? Like Detroit, you can allow organized labor to collectively bargain itself out of a baron to rob, or like New York, you can tax people to the point that the joys of city life are no longer fiscally responsible.

Much ado was made about Rush Limbaugh's decision to sell his properties in New York and not spend another day there (he only spent three weeks a year there - he lives in Florida, which has no state tax). What will be interesting is how many other mega-earners will follow suit. New York is trickle-down taxation - fewer and fewer high earners are paying for services for low- or non-earners, and now, with the highest tax rate in the country, expect to see the brainpower flee. 

Enough is enough. 

But who and where are all these millionaires to pluck? More than any other state, New York has been hurt by the financial meltdown, and its $132 billion budget is now $17.7 billion in deficit. The days of high-roller Wall Street bonuses that finance 20% of the New York budget are long gone. The richest 1% of New Yorkers already pay almost 40% of the income tax, and the top 0.5% pay 30%.