A growing number of blue states are doubling down on wealth taxes, seemingly convinced that the solution to their budget problems is to squeeze the “wealthy” even harder. (Small print: Definitions of who is considered “Wealthy” are subject to change)
California, New York, Washington, Maine, and others are all pursuing or have already implemented higher taxes on high earners and millionaires. The attitude is remarkably consistent: “the rich can afford it, so they should pay more.” The reality, like every Democratic Socialist slogan, is far less pleasant and far more damaging.
This isn’t just policy disagreement. It’s an almost personal vendetta in some cases. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has singled out billionaire Ken Griffin in a particularly aggressive manner, treating him as a political punching bag rather than a major economic contributor. Even going as far to do a Tax Day video in front of his house.
Griffin, who has been vocal about New York’s hostile business climate, called Mamdani’s approach a “profound lack of judgment” and ripped into the socialist bent driving these policies. The targeting is not subtle. It’s personal, and it reveals a deeper contempt for the very people who generate the revenue these states depend on to survive.
Subscribe to The American Mandate
Finally coverage of Trump’s White House by reporters who don’t hate America!
Subscribe for:
Real News
America First Policy
Bold Opinion Editorials
Must-see Video
We are taking back this media landscape one day at a time. Support independent media, subscribe to The American Mandate!
Seattle’s mayor, Katie Wilson, provides another telling example. A self-described Democratic Socialist, Wilson has openly joked about wealthy residents leaving the state in response to the new millionaire tax. Her flippant “if they leave, bye” attitude drew applause from her base, but it perfectly encapsulates the callous disregard many progressive politicians now show toward the people who actually fund city and state services.
Wilson herself comes from a privileged background, with parents who are professors and who help cover her substantial childcare and rent costs. Her casual dismissal of the economic consequences of driving high earners away reveals a profound disconnect from fiscal reality that one would expect more from a rebellious teenager than the mayor of a major US city.
The economic data is unambiguous: raising taxes on the wealthy in America, where moving to a lower-tax state is relatively easy and even easier if you’re super rich, leads directly to an exodus. People and companies vote with their feet. California has been bleeding residents and businesses for years (and suffering all of the associated issues of a state in decline.) Washington state is seeing similar outflows. Maine’s new surcharge on millionaires is already drawing warnings from critics that it will punish local entrepreneurship and harm long-term growth. The pattern repeats across Blue states: higher taxes on success, means the successful leave, followed by declining tax revenue.
We’ve seen this movie before. When New York Governor Kathy Hochul essentially told high-net-worth individuals who didn’t like her tax plans to leave the state, they did! She quickly had to reverse course and begged them to return. Her cringeworthy mea culpa and (deranged) sales pitch framed paying ridiculously high punitive taxes on their success as some kind of moral duty former residents owed the state. That’s like a dentist advertising for business talking about how great it feels to get your teeth drilled!
The episode was both embarrassing and revealing. Even politicians like Hochul who push these policies eventually discover that the wealthy are not trapped, they can and will relocate. Mamdani appears to be the exception for now and has seemingly yet to read the writing on the wall, but the realization should be just around the corner given current circumstances and timelines. (Spoiler Alert: The consequences for state and city finances will be cataclysmic.)
As high earners and businesses depart, the tax base shrinks. The very services progressives claim to champion — education, healthcare, infrastructure — become harder to fund. Yet instead of rethinking the policies driving people away, many blue-state leaders double down, treating the “wealthy” who stay as an inexhaustible ATM rather than mobile economic actors who respond to incentives and punishments.
This isn’t about protecting the poor. Thats just the attractive wrapping paper to get you to vote for them. This is about punishing success. The rhetoric has become so unhinged that politicians now think nothing of open displays of personal contempt for the people who literally pay the bills for their utopian dreamland. They lecture the wealthy about their “fair share” while ignoring the fact that the top 1% already pay the vast majority of income taxes in most Blue states. When those same high earners decide they’ve had enough and move to Florida, orTexas, or Tennessee, the politicians act shocked and outraged rather than reflect that they might have been somewhat (entirely!) responsible.
If you want a barometer of how far this has gone, we now have Bill Maher, not known for his wild right wing zealotry, bemoaning the amount he pays in taxes. When you’ve lost a liberal like Bill Maher perhaps, just maybe, you have gone too far.
The migration is no longer just anecdotal or personal choice. It is structural. Major companies like JP Morgan and Starbucks, both huge pillars of wealth generation and employment in their respective Blue states are investing heavily in Red states while scaling back in high-tax Blue strongholds. Wealthy individuals are relocating en masse. The titans of Silicon Valley are buying Miami condos hand over fist. The data now shows substantial financial benefits even for middle class earners who leave California and similar states — lower housing costs, cheaper groceries, cheaper gas prices, a reduced overall cost of living. The Blue-state model is driving away not only the rich of the rich, but average residents too.
The obsession with wealth taxes is not just economically self-defeating. It reveals a deeper ideological rot, a belief that success itself at any level is suspect and that the state has a moral right to confiscate ever-larger portions of it and not just from the people who make millions. Politicians who push these policies show open disrespect for the entrepreneurs, investors, and high earners who fund their governments. They treat them as villains rather than vital contributors. How long be for Joe Public taxpayer fills that role?
The evidence is overwhelming. Blue states that pursue aggressive wealth taxes see accelerated outflows of both people and capital. The result is slower growth, declining tax revenue, and worsening budget crises. Yet the political class refuses to learn. They continue to punish the productive while pretending the consequences are someone else’s fault.
The City of Angels looks as though it is about to be the next place to intentionally jump into the economic wood chipper that is “Democratic Socialism.”
The American system allows people and businesses to vote with their feet. Blue states are learning the hard way that when the cost of staying becomes too high, the productive eventually leave.
The question is how much more damage they are willing to inflict before they finally admit that their policies are the problem.
If you’re in Los Angeles, you now have a much bigger worry than “the big one” and you can’t keep yourself safe by hiding under the table.
Chances are it will be classed as a second home and you’ll have to pay a taxes on it.
If you haven't already, read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. It describes perfectly what NY Cal Wash etc... are doing to their states.
Los Angeles is more like the city of evil. These democRATS have ruin the whole state of California. I've never seen the democRATS so bad as they are now. If you want to ave this
country, don't vote for democrats!!!!!!!