Buy a clue?

 

We know that liberals are pretty dumb to begin with.  This disqualifies them from having any position of authority anywhere, even if the only authority they have is to decide what is for dinner.   They make the same mistakes over and over again and are not bright enough to figure out what they are doing wrong.

 

France has just elected its first socialist President in 17 years.  His first task, soak the rich.  So guess what is happening?

 

From the Telegraph UK:

 

The toppling of Nicolas Sarkozy by François Hollande, the first socialist president to lead the country in 17 years, has sent ripples of fear through the wealthier arrondissements of Paris.

 

 Their new president may block the eurozone austerity advocated by Germany's Angela Merkel, but he is not opposed to his richer citizens feeling the squeeze.

 

 Mr Hollande plans to implement a 75pc tax rate on earnings over €1m (£800,000), on top of a 45pc rate for people making €150,000 or more. He is also expected to raise "wealth taxes" on property assets and end his predecessor's tax incentives to lure bankers back home.

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 In addition, France's high earners feel increasingly unwelcome in a country now led by a man who has admitted: "I don't like the rich." So where are they looking? London. It comes as no surprise – while Hollande prepares to raise taxes, over here David Cameron is cutting the 50pc tax rate for income above £150,000 to 45pc. "I have already worked in London and lived in South Kensington," said one French banker who expects to return to the UK over the next three months. "The question is how much of Hollande's rhetoric will materialise into policy."

 

 Few are keen to find out. Private equity firms and American banks in Paris have already begun making arrangements for their top executives to set up office in London, amid widespread concern about changes to the French income tax regime.

 

 High-earners are changing their behaviour so they appear safely based in London before any painful crackdown. "Partners are coming over to establish a track record of behaviour that is outside tax, from an early stage, so that they can respond quickly to what is coming down the track," said a senior source at one private equity firm.

 

D’oh!

 

Is it shocking the rich are decamping rather than have some brain dead socialist government plunder what they have worked so hard for? 

 

It probably does come as a surprise to the socialist who think the rich and simply going to bend over and let the government rape their finances and make them poor.

 

This is the lesson every liberal in America should learn.  If you raise taxes, wealth flees.  If you reduce taxes, it comes home.

 

If there is any doubt of this, one headline this week should have everyone’s attention.

 

From Red Orbit:

 

One of the four co-founders of social networking website Facebook has renounced his US citizenship prior to the company’s initial public offering (IPO) — a move that could save him millions in taxes, according to a Friday report by Bloomberg‘s Danielle Kucera, Sanat Vallikappen and Christine Harper.

 

As Kucera, Valikappen, and Harper first reported, Brazilian-born billionaire Eduardo Saverin, one of the men who helped Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg create the social media juggernaut, has surrendered his citizenship in the United States in favor of Singapore, where he currently resides and where there are no capital gains tax.

 

“Eduardo recently found it more practical to become a resident of Singapore since he plans to live there for an indefinite period of time,” Tom Goodman, a spokesman for Saverin, told Bloomberg via email.

 

With Facebook’s forthcoming IPO being valued for as much as $96 billion, it could save the 30-year-old entrepreneur as much as $600 million when he opts to sell his shares of the company, Foxnews.com has reported. His name was listed among those on an IRS document revealing individuals who have chosen to expatriate, which was released on April 30, according to news reports.

 

“The move, which sees him turn his back on the country in which he made his fortune, will no doubt outrage Americans,” the Daily Mail reported in a May 11 article. “And the 30-year-old is hardly strapped for cash, becoming famous for his playboy lifestyle in Singapore, where he buys bottles of champagne at the most exclusive clubs for supermodels and the super-rich.”

 

Some view Saverin’s move as a result of flaws in US federal tax regulations.

 

In an article for Forbes.com, Daniel J. Mitchell of the Cato Institute said, “It is very sad that America’s tax system is so onerous that some rich people feel they have no choice but to give up U.S. citizenship in order to protect their family finances… there’s also lots of evidence of taxpayers escaping countries controlled by politicians who get too greedy. Mr. Saverin is just the latest example.”

 

“The statists say these people are ‘tax traitors’ and ‘economic Benedict Arnolds,’ but those views are based on a quasi-totalitarian ideology that assumes government has some sort of permanent claim on people’s economic output,” he added. “If people are leaving America because our tax law is onerous, that’s a signal we should reform the tax code. Attacking those who expatriate is the fiscal version of blaming the victim.”

 

Instead of keeping that money here in the United States and investing it, the money is going to Singapore.   Perhaps someone should point this out to Obama as he whines that the rich are not paying their fare share.    The rich have options and if you make it too painful here in America, they will find friendlier shores for their wealth.