As reported by Carlos Garcia in a Blaze article of Mar. 19, Kathy Hochul, the Democratic Governor of N. Y., recently lamented that multiple billionaires had left her state for places such as Florida where taxes are significantly lower. Ironically, in 2022, she had scornfully told wealthy N.Y. Republicans to go down there “where you belong.” Now, however, as many of her social programs are in need of funds, her focus seems to be on maintaining the wealth-producing enterprises still present in her state while perhaps even reclaiming some of those which have left. Garcia portrays her not as a ranting socialist fanatic, but as a woman of common sense. Perhaps her most telling comment was: “We need to be smart about this.”
Both Washington and California, by the way, have experienced the same phenomenon, wealthy citizens leaving by the thousands in an effort to escape the massive tax burdens imposed by their “progressive” leaders.
Fact: The top 1% of America’s wealthy, account for 46% of its federal income taxes. While this would seem reasonable, many on the Left will of course attribute the economic dilemmas of N.Y., Washington and California to the disgusting greed they associate with Capitalism. While no one can deny that factor to be relevant in a certain percentage of all human endeavors, it is at the same time perfectly reasonable that people should seek to defend their hard won assets. This fact of simple common sense would seem to be obvious to Gov. Hochul.
The problem for Hochul, and indeed the Socialist mayor of her largest city, is that they feel entitled to spend well beyond their means on behalf of what they consider “social justice.” This goal, of course, entails the elimination of the gap between the rich and the poor, a gap which, while no doubt due to certain inequities, is largely the result of the radical diversity of our species. In societies given to Free Enterprise, disparities in both achievement and the accumulation of wealth are inevitable. As the U.S. does not allow Socialists such as Hochul and Mamdani to simply impose their wills through the imposition of authoritarian edicts, they must choose between Fiscal Responsibility and the dictates of their Leftist Ideology. We all know what they choose, the ever increasing Deficits of most “progressive” domains being ridiculous. That the wealthy are leaving such domains in droves, is understandable. That the Left puts its Sentimental Ideology ahead of the Facts of Economic Reality, is the dilemma with which Kathy Hochul is presently contending.
Just today [April 3], The Blaze revealed that Zohran Mamdani has declared N.Y. City to be broke. Yet he is also in the process of initiating various programs which will cost the city millions of dollars [i.e., free universal child care for all]! Such is the imperviousness to Reality typical of the contemporary Left!