California's oppressive tax regime is causing an Atlas Shrugged-style flight of productive citizens. With a sky-high state income tax rate of 9.3% kicking-in at just $47,056 in annual income, an extra 1% tax if you make over $1 million, and a sales tax that starts at 7.25%; it's no wonder the wealthy are leaving the state.

As Rich Karlgaard writes in Forbes, "Onetime talent magnet, California now leads the nation in the outflow of its residents to other states. Since 2004 California has lost about 1.5 million people in taxpaying households. At the same time, the state has added 2.4 million people, mostly newborns and immigrants, legal and illegal, who pay little or no taxes."

Karlgaard offers up Texas and Washington State as low-tax alternatives for California's producers.

Read full article...

Atlas Shrugged begins... New York turns on the rich