« Previous — Next »
They Leave Connecticut Because They Can, Parallels Between CT and Denmark.
7 December 2007Connecticut’s younglings leave the home nest at the highest rate in the country. The 18+ demographic who are just starting out find it hard to live in this state of high taxation and vote with their feet to lower cost areas of the country. No brainer here, we raise and educate smart kids. If fact, the Federals should pay us for educating the country’s best and brightest, because we certainly aren’t getting the full return on our education investment.
I just love that word, “investment” don’t you? Isn’t is grand when government talks of “investment”, oh it sounds just so…… like my wallet is going to take a major hit. Doesn’t it?
A similar voting is happening in Denmark. Denmark’s best and brightest are leaving
The problem, employers and economists believe, has a lot to do with the 63 percent marginal tax rate paid by top earners in Denmark - a level that hits anyone making more than 360,000 Danish kroner, or about $70,000. That same tax rate underpins such effective income redistribution that Denmark is the most nearly equal society in the world, in that wealth is more evenly spread than anywhere else.
So when all of us are equal…..who will pay the bills?
Now our effective tax rate in Connecticut (including Fed and Local taxes) is ~41%. TaxFreedomDay.
And our kids are leaving. I doubt my smart daughter is coming back. I would tell her not to.
The best and brightest are the most able to leave, and they do. This can not be argued. The end effect is an aging population with increasing social services demands with a decreasing tax base to pay for it.
A decreasing housing demand coupled with a large supply of fully appreciated housing stock, in other words, your house will lag the country in appreciation. If our young are leaving and starting their families in North Carolina, who is going to buy your empty MacMansion?
The Confederation of Danish Industries estimated in August that the Danish labor force had shrunk by about 19,000 people through the end of 2005, because Danes and others had moved elsewhere. Other studies suggest that about 1,000 people leave the country each year, a figure that masks an outflow of qualified Danes and an inflow of less skilled foreign workers who help, at least partially, to offset the losses. (cttaxed editors note: high social services attract less skilled workers)
Danish business normally keeps its distance from politics, but in parliamentary elections this year, a few companies jumped into the fray.
Lars Christensen is co-chief executive of Saxo Bank, a Copenhagen financial services firm specializing in currency trading and retail brokerage services. New employees at Saxo Bank get a copy of “Winning,” the playbook of Jack Welch, the brass-knuckled former chief executive of General Electric, and “Atlas Shrugged,” the libertarian manifesto by Ayn Rand, suggesting that the boss has little time for solutions that beat around the bush.
“The high tax rate is the No. 1 problem we have,” Christensen said. “It’s that simple.”
Christensen said about 150 positions at Saxo Bank had been created outside Denmark because filling them at the home office would have been either prohibitively expensive or simply impossible. Finding people at its offices in Britain, Switzerland and Singapore, where tax rates range from 19 to 40 percent, proved easier. But it forced the bank to break up teams of people that it wanted to be concentrated in Copenhagen.
This should really be a no brainer.
One Response to “They Leave Connecticut Because They Can, Parallels Between CT and Denmark.”
December 15th, 2007 at 6:18 pm