Jaun Carlos,
re post 14:
When the UK marginal tax rate what in excess of 100% in the 1950's and 60's, quite a number of successful people moved out, and businesses went along with them.
I see it happening here in CA with businesses getting out to AZ, TX and NV due to the overall costs of doing business (higher cost of living, government regulation and taxation in fees as well as income tax).
If a business fails to make a profit, it will die and the employees and owners will be on the street looking for work. Profit is the source of new ideas, processes, equipment and your annual raise, if you are getting one. My business has not been profitable for several years despite a lot of work. There is no room to increase prices so we have to focus on cutting cost as much as is possible (some things have to be done-I want to buy some CNC machines for the shop) and working to sell as much as we can. Eventually people can find jobs at higher salaries and you can begin a death spiral.
That is okay with me in some ways, as maybe we shouldn't be doing what we are doing. Not very good conversation when you are laying people off, however.
While this is economics, economics is a political topic. Bad economic ideas appeal to various people for various reasons. Free political systems cannot coexist with unfree economic systems, and vice versa. A free market system for economics almost guarentees a free political system. Give up your healthcare to the government? You just traded some of your freedom away.
Marx' best idea was to die, the rest has proven to be pretty universally unworkable if not evil, multiple times in multiple countries with "very smart" people trying to make it work. To the regret of tens of millions of people, he came to it late in life.
Politicians like Hillary Clinton, claiming to be an "old-fashioned American progressive" (look at the words and intentions, change only the words and you have doctrinaire marxists), are wanting to do over the failed economic ideas of marxist socialism, and sell the idea it can work by claiming they are more clever or nicer or something else the previous failures weren't.
That's how the previous failures sold their case to the electorate of their times, or they did it with guns, as in Russia.
Take a good look at Zimbabwe, if you want to see the marxist end game scenario. That Europe still functions, sort of, has nothing to do with good "socialist" policy. It has to do with the limited application of socialist policy. Zimbabwe has had unlimited application, particularly in the last couple of years, and is in death spiral.
Then go look at Ireland and Estonia regarding their tax schemes and economic freedoms.
