Once upon a time, back in the middle of the 20th century, the smallest theater on Broadway could have comfortably accommodated a get-together of all the New Yorkers worth at least $100 million. Not anymore. Broadway’s landmark Helen Hayes Theater holds a mere 597 seats. The number of “centi-millionaires” who currently call the City of New York home: 744.
New York currently hosts, researchers at the London-based Henley & Partners have just reported, more centi-millionaires than any other city on Earth. And if hosting centi-millionaires ever became an Olympic sport, the Henley stats show, the USA would be bringing home gold, silver, and bronze.
The San Francisco Bay Area — now teeming with 675 centi-millionaires — rates as the world’s second-most-popular home to fortunes worth over $100 million. Los Angeles sits third with 496.
Our world’s most stout defenders of grand fortunes, for their part, find these stats a mite inconvenient.
Why this unease? The presence of all these super rich in New York, the Bay Area, and Los Angeles undercuts a key claim of our don’t-tax-the-rich set. That claim: If confronted with any substantial tax rate, people of major means will simply pack up and relocate in places that better appreciate how selflessly noble deep pockets can be.
In other words, claim friends of grand fortune, lawmakers inclined to significantly tax the rich are playing a foolish game they cannot possibly win. But the rich who live in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles all face state and local taxes considerably higher than the rich who live in most all other major metropolitan areas. Yet these rich haven’t yet picked up and moved elsewhere.
Norway has become just the latest political jurisdiction to go through a don’t-dare-tax-the-rich debate. Norway’s current Labor Party-backed government has proposed expanding an existing “exit tax” on the nation’s rich who choose to emigrate. These rich, if this change goes through, will start owing taxes on any substantial capital gains they haven’t yet realized before their exit.
—
Previously Published on inequality.org with Creative Commons License
***
You Might Also Like These From The Good Men Project
 |
 |
 |
 |
Join The Good Men Project as a Premium Member today.
All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS. A $50 annual membership gives you an all access pass. You can be a part of every call, group, class and community. A $25 annual membership gives you access to one class, one Social Interest group and our online communities. A $12 annual membership gives you access to our Friday calls with the publisher, our online community.
Register New Account
Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here.—
Photo credit: unsplash
