Grant Me StrengthOct 26

If you tax the wealthy they’ll leave.

We tax them. They leave.

Every country taxes them. They leave.

Now they live in international waters on giant boats. They hate it. The food is awful. They get norovirus a lot.

The world carries on, considerably better off.

Show threadPeter Brown
@GrantMeStrength there doesn’t seem to be any actual statistical evidence that they do leave. Just anecdotal threats to intimidate government into not taxing them.
Oct 26 at 5:15pmWeb
Show threadFeloniousPunkOct 26

@peterbrown @GrantMeStrength It’s just a scare tactic. Massachusetts proved it.

https://fortune.com/2025/10/21/zohran-mamdani-millionaire-tax-massachusetts-5-7-billion/

Millionaire tax that inspired Mamdani fuels $5.7 billion haul in Massachusetts

In two years levying a 4% surtax on incomes over $1 million, it's funded bridge repairs, bolstered literacy programs and tackled a transportation deficit.

Fortune
Show threadRobert ThauOct 26
@FeloniousPunk @peterbrown @GrantMeStrength The US has lots of test cases, due to differences between state income tax rates (excess of 10% in some states, zero on others), and millionaires always say the next little bit would be the one to make them move. But they're giving up money to stay where they are already, and the difference in amounts is minor. So if money would make them leave, they'd have already left.
Show threadKevin RussellOct 26

@FeloniousPunk @peterbrown @GrantMeStrength

The small uptick in fairness is tiny compared to trying to move businesses.

How does a landlord leave? Put apartments on barges?

Show threadJWcph, Radicalized By DecencyOct 27
@kevinrns @FeloniousPunk @peterbrown @GrantMeStrength Exactly - either they can't take their business with them, or they can & this opens up an opportunity in the market for someone else to step in. The only thing they can actually take away at will is their own taxes, but they do that already; none of them pay taxes, so what's the loss...?
Show threadJustin DerrickOct 26
@FeloniousPunk @peterbrown @GrantMeStrength They should increase it by 1% every year until they get back to the 90% marginal tax rate the US had until the 80’s.
Show threadPeter BrownOct 27
@JustinDerrick @FeloniousPunk @GrantMeStrength that was only the top rate. Most of your income was taxed at a much lower rate than that.
Show threadWesDymOct 27

@peterbrown @JustinDerrick @FeloniousPunk @GrantMeStrength Yes, that's what "marginal" means.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_rate#Marginal

Tax rate - Wikipedia

Show threadPeter BrownOct 27
@wesdym @JustinDerrick @FeloniousPunk @GrantMeStrength yes the reply wasn’t specifically directed to you but anybody else reading the thread. I think I’d be looking at increments of more than 1% per year though
Show threadPeter BrettOct 26

@peterbrown Scotland has higher income tax than England. To within a rounding error, no-one has left over it.

@GrantMeStrength

Show threadBeldarakOct 26

@peterbrown @GrantMeStrength

also they do leave wether you tax them or not. They'll put as much as they can of their workforce in countries with less taxes and social laws