LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Those Leaving Mass. Are the Greedy

Gordon Gekko from the movie, Wall Street.

To the Editor:

Interesting article on people moving elsewhere.
From my experience of living in California for 35 years, taxes in MA are low. The income tax here is regressive, and not progressive, so that the wealthy pay the same percent as the rest of us. Even with the additional 4%, they don't pay all that much. although I have not seen what that means for their total income. However, fFor an example, 4% of, say, $3,000,000 comes to $120,000. I suspect that after deductions it would be a bit less. Those who pay the extra 4% are not "hurting;; they are just, in my view, greedy.
As a retired historian, I would point out that the progressive income tax began in England and Europe in the nineteenth century. As more and more people gained the right to vote, they wanted things like parks, garbage pick-up, public health to make their lives safer, schooling, help for the less fortunate, etc. The purpose of that progressive income tax was, from my perspective, for the rich to help those less fortunate. But that isn't the case iln MA. Further, while someone with the median income in MA pays 5% of their income on Social Security on their entire income, the rich don't pay on the vast majority of their income, so that, in effect, they pay not 5% of their income, but practically, pay a miniscule amount of their total income into Social Security. In my opinion, this country is in a fiscal mess precisely because the wealthy not only pay much less than the wealthy in other major economies, but do this knowing the effect on those less fortunate. 

Very frankly, my belief is that the key goal of Republicans is to "take as much as you can from the needy and give as much as you can to the greedy."
And that is the practical goal of Republicans. The Trump tax cuts not only mostly helped the rich, but in 2025, i.e., next year, the lower taxes on most people will disappear, but those of the rich are scheduled to last forever, demonstrating my point. I'm confident that you disagree with this, but that's what discussions are all about.

Further, although they may move away, any income assets that they have from MA would, I believe, still be taxed. And moving to Florida, which has a crazy governor, or Texas, which is ridiculously crazy in its legislation, in my personal opinion, indicates that most of these people are Republicans.

Take care.

Sam Oppenheim

EDITOR'S NOTE: We don't know if Greed is Good, to quote Gordon Gekko, but we suspect it is more widely distributed in the population than one might suspect. Sam makes some interesting points. And, we hope to continue this discussion over coffee...