Soak the Rich, Take the Risk

This article shows another reason that we shouldn't soak the rich:

The first person to testify, Rutgers economist James Hughes, confirmed the grim possibilities facing the Garden State. "A sharp economic rebound is not in the cards," Hughes said. "We still have a lot of pain to go through."

Forty percent of New Jersey's income tax is paid by the wealthiest 1 percent of residents, Hughes said, and under the "worst-case scenario" the state could see its income-tax collection drop by 13 percent or so in the wake of Wall Street cutbacks.

So the rich people who live in New Jersey and work on Wall Street are paying for the nanny state. The people become dependent on the nanny state. But when there's an economic shock concentrated on Wall Street (not an unheard of event, right, guys?) the rich people lose their money, stop paying taxes, and make it impossible for the nanny state to support the people who became dependent on it during good times.

"Progressive" overtaxation of the rich sucks for everyone.

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