[FoRK] How Barack lost my vote forever

[Jonathan S. Knoll]

Well, actually, California's property taxes might be high, but due to Prop
13, property values are never re-assessed. As a result, in-state mobility in
California is pathetically low because it is not economically viable to sell
a home you've lived in for years (because your next place -- even if its
value were less -- could cost you ten times more in taxes). This is why
California's economy is screwed. It is a state awash with multi-million
dollar homes, and many of them pay next to nothing in property tax.

So why is California screwed? Because the sweet old couple living near the
center of town can NEVER sell their home, and, in fact, as a favor to their
kids, they'll pass it (and its beautifully low property tax) down to them to
boot. Consequently, as metro-areas grow, they expand exponentially outward,
because people can't afford to buy near the city centers. Eventually, they
give up and just move away.

/jsk

(Sorry if this got posted twice. I think I sent it from the wrong address
initially.)

On Thu, Apr 17, 2008 at 3:41 PM, Adam L Beberg <beberg at mithral.com> wrote:


> California tried the high taxes thing, currently the highest state, sales,
> and property taxes in the country.
>
> So 20% of the richest Californians left in the last few years. So yes,
> taxing the rich works, the evil capitalists left, we're rid of them, yay!
> Hurray for socialism!
>
> ...and now CA is 16 billion in the hole for just this year. Turns out only
> those tippy top few percent actually pay more in taxes then they cost the
> state in services, oops! Not that that was obvious or anything.
>
> Wealth is very very concentrated, and any country/state that doesn't cater
> to those people loses their economic viability. California and the US for
> the most part has lost it.
>
> --
> Adam L. Beberg
> http://www.mithral.com/~beberg/ <http://www.mithral.com/%7Ebeberg/>
>
> _______________________________________________
> FoRK mailing list
> http://xent.com/mailman/listinfo/fork
>