I've never moved for tax reasons, but I have refused to consider some destinations (and turned down jobs) because I didn't want to pay ruinous local rates or live under the intrusive laws that seem to go hand-in-hand with grabby tax regimes. Unsurprisingly, I'm not the only one who takes the sticky fingers of government into consideration when deciding where to live and work; crunching data from government and private sources, the Tax Foundation says that taxes play a significant role in where people choose to live.

"Every year, millions of Americans pack up and move from one state to another, providing unique insights into what people value when deciding where to live, work, and raise a family," Andrey Yushkov and Katherine Loughead, senior policy analysts for the Tax Foundation, wrote last week. "The latest IRS and Census data show that people and businesses favor states with low and structurally sound tax systems, which can impact the state's economic growth and governmental coffers."

This may seem like a "duh" moment for many readers. All things being equal, who doesn't prefer to live in places where politicians are less prone than the competition to pick pockets and smother progress? And for normal people, the idea that high taxes are a turn-off is common sense.

But we're not talking about normal people; we're talking about government officials who use their long-suffering subjects like milking cows and prefer to do so without consequences. There's even a cottage industry of pundits—like Stanford sociologist Cristobal Young, author of The Myth of Millionaire Tax Flight—who tell politicians what they want to hear.

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