WHERE HAS LIVING BEEN BEST SINCE THE GREENSPAN-BERNANKE GREAT INFLATION, PEAK GDP AND THE GREATEST DEPRESSION?

Today, I did some sleuthing. Using income per resident, age 16 and up, expressed in True Dollars™, I compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia to see what Americans have weathered the Greatest Depression storm the best.

While I am not going to put up all 51 curve charts plotting per capita income for each state and DC, I shall present to you a few tables.

The first table shows the change in income per head from various dates in the past.



Nevada has been the best place to live since Peak GDP merely because Nevadans enjoyed the smallest decline in income per resident expressed in True Dollars™.




The second table shows how the states rank by changes in income as expressed in the percents above.



It fails to surprise that car making country — Michigan and Ohio sit at the bottom. Also, who wouldn't expect high-tax states like New York and Illinois to be  near the bottom. It surprises that residents of upstate New York continue to pay taxes to feed the residents of New York City. Likewise, it seems the residents of Chicago have the rest of Illinoisans held hostage.

The third table shows how the states rank by income per head at Peak GDP in True Dollars™, Q4 2007, and for the latest report (Q3 2014 as of this writing). Also, the table reveals the per cap income percentile for each state.

This table can give you an idea in which states living is declining and in which states living is improving.



For any state, if the number in the second column is larger than the number in the first column, living is worsening in that state.

Read more ...

STATE TAX RECEIPTS. THE GOOD. THE BAD. THE UGLY.

The other day in STATE TAX RECEIPTS LAG TRUE GDP. IS THE RECOVERY ON OR NOT?, I revealed to you how personal income, corporate income, sales and total taxes collected by all the states might have increased from after hitting a bottom. If so, this would support the advances in True GDP and True Loans and Leases as I showed in THE USA ECONOMY ADVANCE LIKELY HAS BEGUN AT LONG LAST.

Now, I show you how the various states stack up against each other. First, let's look at states by Individual Burden as measured by the sum of per capita True Income and True Sales taxes paid against those 18 and old in each state.

True Individual Tax Burden (per capita, 18+ in GW$)


The 21 worst states in which anyone could live are these:

1. Connecticut
2. Hawaii
3. Minnesota
4. California
5. New York
6. Massachusetts
7. North Dakota
8. New Jersey
9. Nebraska
10. Maryland
11. Kansas
12. Wisconsin
13. Arkansas
14. Maine
15. Illinois
16. Rhode Island
17. Idaho
18. Indiana
19. Iowa
20. Virginia
21. Utah

The top 21 states' legislators tax their adult citizens so much of these states skew the average. The top 29 least taxing states' legislators with the lowest individual burdens fall below the average.

That Connecticut tops the list fails to surprise me. Only the other day, before running the numbers here, I came across this work by Annie Lowrey, What’s the Matter With Connecticut? 

Though Ms. Lowrey has it right that something is wrong in Connecticut, foolishly, she claims that Thomas Piketty's book has the answer. Of course, regular readers of Bizarro Theater know that born-again socialism revivalist preacher Piketty is quite wrong. For those who have yet to learn why the past creates the future rather than Piketty's expressed foolery — the past devours the future — read these:

• THOMAS PIKETTY, 696 PAGES OF FOOLERY DESTROYED IN LESS THAN FIVE MINUTES
• UT OH, SOMEONE BETTER TELL THOMAS PIKETTY ABOUT L > G TOO.
• MORE BAD NEWS FOR THOMAS PIKETTY P > G TOO!
• THOMAS PIKETTY, REVIVALIST PREACHER OF BORN-AGAIN SOCIALISM. THE SECOND GREAT AWAKENING OF SOCIALISM HAS COME TO AMERICA

When politicians take ever greater unearned shares of profits from individuals, individuals have less to spend. The 186 members of the Connecticut General Assembly are not smart enough to know how to spend better than those 2,821,247 adult Nutmeggers from whom they swiped.

Consequently, inefficiencies build up in the economy, with some goods being over-produced and other goods, under-produced. Worse, unearned buying power gets put into the hands of some who then push up prices than what would otherwise be gained by sellers. Overtime, such meddling leads to a wind-down of the economy as true profits become harder to gain both for firms and individuals.

Here are the top 15 Least Taxing States for imposing individual burdens.

1. Alaska
2. New Hampshire
3. Montana
4. Texas
5. Florida
6. South Dakota
7. Alabama
8. Tennessee
9. Louisiana
10. Nevada
11. Arizona
12. Wyoming
13. Delaware
14. South Carolina
15. Georgia

And now, here is the map of True Personal Income Tax paid.

True Personal Income Tax Paid, 18+ in GW$


Not surprisingly, the list for highest personal income tax burdens appears quite alike to the list of individual tax burdens.

Here are the 21 worst states in which anyone could live:

1. Connecticut
2. New York
3. Massachusetts
4. California
5. Minnesota
6. Oregon
7. Delaware
8. New Jersey
9. Virginia
10. Maryland
11. Illinois
12. Hawaii
13. Nebraska
14. Wisconsin
15. Utah

And here are the top 9 best states by least personal income tax:

1. Alaska
2. Florida
3. Nevada
4. South Dakota
5. Texas
6. Washington
7. Wyoming
8. Tennessee
9. New Hampshire

Moving on, let's look at the True Sales Tax burden. Right, because if legislators don't get you one way, they get you another.

True Sales Tax Burden (per capita, 18+ in GW$)


Of the two, income tax or sales, I prefer sales tax. An income tax is an unearned share of profits for which legislators have not invested any capital either in firms or workers. Thus, an income tax is highly anti-capitalistic.

When a sales tax is borne by the buyer, it is up to the buyer to decide whether or not to pay the toll to legislators to enjoy goods bought from the fruits of work sold in purchases and sales of work for cash or credit. Such a tax is a wealth tax.

When a sales tax is borne by the seller, and in some states this is the method even though customers fail to know this and fall prey to the seller pushing the tax upon the buyer, such a tax also is anti-capitalistic, as it is a levy against capital.

For more on the kinds of taxes that exist in life, check out IF YOU DRIVE A CAR, I'LL TAX THE STREET. IF YOU TRY TO SIT, I'LL TAX YOUR SEAT. MR. WILSON. MR. HEATH. Also, you should read, ELITES SEEK TO PUNISH WORKERS WITH A CONSUMPTION TAX, OR A TAX ON WORKERS' WEALTH.

Here are the 20 worst states whose legislators levy the true highest sales taxes while also burdening the citizens with personal income taxes.

1. Hawaii
2. North Dakota
3. Connecticut
4. Mississippi
5. Tennessee
6. Indiana
7. Arkansas
8. Kansas
9. New Mexico
10. Minnesota
11. New Jersey
12. Nebraska
13. California
14. Idaho
15. Maine

That Hawaiian legislators lead this list fails to surprise. When you are stuck on an island with most goods being imported over seas and you need those goods to live, you will do what you need to do to get those goods.

Here are the states whose legislators levy sales taxes but no personal income taxes.

1. Washington
2. Wyoming
3. Nevada
4. South Dakota
5. Florida
6. Texas

The legislators of Alaska neither levy sales tax nor personal income tax.

Now, let's see how states' legislators treat their fictional personhood friends. 

True Corporate Income Tax Paid, per firm in GW$


Straight away, I acknowledge that presenting these figures suffer a small flaw. The firm count as reported in the Statistics of U.S. Businesses by the Census Bureau, though the latest figures available, only runs through 2011. Nonetheless, it's fairly accurate.

Here are the states whose legislators treat firms the worst.

1. Alaska
2. New Hampshire
3. Illinois
4. Massachusetts
5. North Dakota
6. Delaware
7. California
8. New Jersey
9. Tennessee
10. Mississippi
11. Minnesota
12. Pennsylvania
13. Connecticut
14. New York
15. Kentucky
16. Wisconsin
17. Maryland
18. New Mexico
19. Nebraska

Likely, the legislators of Alaska and North Dakota sock it to oil and nat gas drillers. 

And here are the states with the lowest corporate tax burden, falling in the top 25% lowest.

1. Nevada
2. Texas
3. Washington
4. Wyoming
5. Ohio
6. South Dakota
7. Missouri
8. Rhode Island
9. Montana
10. Michigan
11. Florida
12. Virginia
13. Oklahoma

This last map reveals the True Corporate Income Tax to Individual Burden Ratio. To make the map, the states of Alaska and New Hampshire have been excluded.

The New Hampshire ratio is 24 times higher than the next closest state's legislators, Tennessee. Alaska is 10 times New Hampshire as Alaskans lack an individual burden of sales and personal income taxes.

True Corporate Income Tax Paid (per firm) to True Individual Tax Burden (per capita, 18+) in GW$


You can think of this map revealing a proxy for competitiveness among the states' legislatures.

Here are the states falling above the average whose legislators like tax corporate entities higher than citizens.

1. Tennessee
2. Delaware
3. Illinois
4. Mississippi
5. Pennsylvania
6. Massachusetts
7. Kentucky
8. New Jersey
9. North Dakota
10. Louisiana
11. North Carolina
12. Florida
13. California
14. Montana
15. Alabama
16. New Mexico
17. West Virginia
18. Wisconsin
19. South Carolina
20. Indiana
21. Arizona
22. Minnesota
23. Maryland

And here are the states falling below the average.

1. Nevada
2. Texas
3. Washington
4. Wyoming
5. Ohio
6. South Dakota
7. Hawaii
8. Missouri
9. Rhode Island
10. Connecticut
11. Maine
12. Virginia
13. Michigan
14. Idaho
15. Oklahoma
16. Utah
17. Oregon
18. Iowa
19. New York
20. Nebraska
21. Kansas
22. Colorado
23. Vermont
24. Arkansas
25. Georgia

True Total Taxes Paid, per capita in GW$

When accounting for other taxes such as licenses, here are the top states with the lowest total taxes levied per capita whose legislators beat the average.

1. New Hampshire
2. Florida
3. Alabama
4. Georgia
5. Missouri
6. Arizona
7. South Carolina
8. South Dakota
9. Tennessee
10. Texas
11. Louisiana
12. Colorado
13. Virginia
14. North Carolina
15. Ohio
16. Oregon
17. Oklahoma
18. Utah
19. Idaho
20. Kentucky
21. Michigan
22. Iowa
23. Nevada
24. Mississippi
25. Montana
26. Indiana
27. Kansas
28. Pennsylvania
29. Washington
30. Nebraska
31. Rhode Island
32. Maine
33. New Mexico
34. Wisconsin
35. West Virginia

And overall, here are the worst states in which anyone could live.

1. North Dakota
2. Connecticut
3. Vermont
4. Minnesota
5. Hawaii
6. Wyoming
7. Alaska
8. New York
9. California
10. Massachusetts
11. Delaware
12. New Jersey
13. Maryland
14. Arkansas
15. Illinois

Read more ...

STATE TAX RECEIPTS LAG TRUE GDP. IS THE RECOVERY ON OR NOT?

“...Look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own...If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.” ~ Barack H. Obama, II, 44th President of the United States of America

When politicians give speeches, never is it that they say something stupid because they are stupid themselves. Rather, politicians repeat what their speechwriters have written.

So are speechwriters stupid? Speechwriters write persuasion geared to appeal the majority. Speechwriters rely on the majority having easily bamboozled intellects and defective characters by appealing to their instincts of greed, envy and sloth.

It's not likely that Obama is daft about all things America and economics. It's that Obama expects most who listen to him to be daft. So, in truth, Obama's deceitful way reveals his true character.

All of those roads and bridges of the past were not built by ghosts. Men built them. But before taxes could be ripped from men to pay for those things, all of this had to happen in sequence:

production → surplus → sales > outlays = profit

For if there is no profit, in short order, any firm gets put to ruin. There is no way to pay for needed capital — products that yield goods in production of something else.

If firms can't break even first, there can be no taxes collected. Firms would go to ruin in short order if taxes could be levied below break even.

Without profit there can be no taxes. All taxes are an unearned share of profits. If no profits arise, there can be no taxes. Politicians are sharing the profits by the force of taxation  without having invested any cash or credit into the capital of anyone.

That means there can be no roads, bridges, government bureaucrats, government freebie welfare for layabouts, none of that without first there being surplus and profit. That is how reality works.

Obama ought to have said the truth. That today's businesswomen and men can sell more because of roads and bridges built and paid for by their ancestors with income ripped from their hands by politicians like Obama.

In THE USA ECONOMY ADVANCE LIKELY HAS BEGUN AT LONG LAST, I revealed the upwelling of private sector True GDP compared to public sector True GDP along with the general advance of True GDP. Yet, as you can see from the following graphs, taxes are lagging behind GDP.

States' legislators are having a hard time collecting taxes using their extant tax laws. Why is this so? Profits growth for firms and workers has yet to match the latest True GDP growth. Sales are advancing though.

However, unless those curves at least flatten and then swing up within the next few quarters,  it is hard to see how the two quarter positive turn in True GDP can sustain.

Read more ...