Enslaved and Loving It

All the Republican candidates agree that the economy must be deregulated and de-taxed, and that will bring the jobs and prosperity back. I’m prepared to believe that. The Bush tax cuts have been great. Obama’s payroll tax relief — also great.

But the link between economic freedom and prosperity is unfortunately not clear.

Like the Republicans, I like to look at the states as laboratories, but unlike the Republicans I actually evaluate the results of the lab tests from time to time.

Here’s the latest one: according to a study the Mercatus Center at George Mason University (considered to be a conservative pro-business think-tank) New Hampshire ranks as the most-free state in America. The LEAST-free state is New York.

Makes sense — NY regulates and taxes everything it can. I remember my dad paid a commuter tax just for having the nerve to drive to Manhattan to work. (And tolls were EXTRA!) It’s modern slavery.

But if you look at New York’s per-capita GDP, which is a measure of the amount of wealth the state generates each year, it is FAR from last — by some measures it’s NUMBER TWO, behind only Delaware. Other surveys have it lower, but still easily in the top ten. But even more important — its CHANGE in GDP over the last two years has ALSO been near the top — 5.1% compared to New Hampshire’s pathetic 1.3%.

The idea that deregulating and de-taxing is going to bring back the jobs is bogus. It may be worthwhile for other reasons, but it’s not a job creator.

Paying employees well and making them feel secure is what makes people feel like spending, and American companies don’t do that anymore — and of course the unions that used to enforce job security are toothless.

This I’m sure of: what the de-taxing approach WILL accomplish is to make future generations pine for the days when the debt was a mere 14.3 trillion.