Some people can do something simple yet make a bold statement. While Bezos is no Elon Musk, his latest action isn’t too far off. Especially if you know how to read between the lines.
No need to pile on, when it comes to how bad Democrat-controlled cities are. But what’s the fun in not piling on, particularly when you have Bezos to make your point.
Leftists prove routinely that they know how to ruin things, particularly cities. They are veritable urban hell holes. And that’s why eventually cities lose their best and brightest. More on this in just a bit.
High crime rates, both petty and violent run rampant in cities. Crime is so bad, that cities now either ignore most of it, or plead felonies down to misdemeanors.
It’s as if Leftist politicians read from the same playbook. The irony of this crime cycle is that Leftist politicians see this tactic as a way to reduce jail and prison populations. Cities have become essentially open-air prisons.
And that’s just one problem plaguing every city in America. Consider what the petty crime of shoplifting alone costs. According to CNN,
“For every $330 worth of products stolen, a retailer has to sell an incremental $300,000 worth of goods to break even,” said Burt Flickinger, managing director of retail consultancy Strategic Resource Group. “We’ve talked to retailers across America who say shoplifting is now 2% to 3% of their total sales. That’s up from 0.7 to 1% pre-pandemic.”
Shoplifting traumatized employees, and causes retailers to close stores. Most of these store closures occur in the neighborhoods that need them most. At least that’s the case for pharmacies.
When you consider the issues plaguing cities, one must believe that corrupt politicians know they are sabotaging their inhabitants. Because cities aren’t getting any better.
They lure people, generally very naive people with dreams of grandeur. But the outcomes are far from their dreams.
There comes a point where even the successful people decide to leave. And MSNBC explained of the mass exodus of money from blue states to red states.
After analyzing IRS data, Bloomberg has identified a clear trend of wealth migration. From 2020 to 2021, states like Florida, Texas, Georgia, the Carolinas, and Tennessee collectively gained an impressive $100 billion in new net income. In contrast, the once-thriving areas of Washington, New York, and Boston saw their income streams decrease by $60 billion during the same period. This is a significant reversal that the IRS hasn’t observed since they started collecting this data in the ’90s.
Consider the impact when a man worth $160 billion decides he’s had enough. As Yahoo Finance reported, Jeff Bezos is relocating.
After launching Amazon from a garage in Seattle in 1994, centibilllionaire Jeff Bezos is leaving the Pacific Northwest behind and setting sail for Florida.
In an Instagram post, the world’s third wealthiest person—with a net worth estimated at $160 billion—said he wanted to be closer to my parents after they recently moved back to Miami.
“My parents have always been my biggest supporters,” he posted to his Instagram account, adding that his spacefaring company Blue Origin is increasingly shifting operations to Cape Canaveral.
Florida also offers a financial benefit to the Amazon founder—it doesn’t charge capital gains tax which, for a man who’s sold some $30 billion in stock since 2002, according to Bloomberg, can be quite substantial
Sure, Jeff is leaving to get closer to his folks. I believe Jeff could have easily moved his folks to Seattle, right? But Bezos didn’t just move to Florida, he’s heavily invested in the state.
He bought a $68 million Miami mansion on the small, man-made island of Indian Creek popularly known as “Billionaires Bunker” in August. Then, in October, Bezos dropped another $79 million to buy his neighbor’s place.
Still, Miami is not the only place where Bezos lives. In addition to his collection of luxury cars and private Gulfstream jets, Bezos owns multiple properties valued recently at a half billion dollars.
How about them taxes?
Bezos can easily drop the kind of coin on his new Florida properties, and not just because he’s one of the richest men who ever lived. As it turns out, Bezos will save 7 percent on one tax alone.
The Washington state supreme court decision in March upheld 7 percent tax on capital gains that took effect in January 2022 despite a legal challenge.
The ruling is considered historic since legislators in Olympia took the opposite view of the Internal Revenue Service. They classified the tax as an excise tax rather than an income tax. This was meant to circumvent the fact that Washington state does not have an income tax under state law. In other words, Leftists figured out how to squeeze money out of its citizens from a law that was meant to prevent them from doing that very thing. And more was coming, as a majority of voters in Seattle are now in favor of a similar capital gains tax for the city itself.
Consider the impact of these taxes on the $30 billion Bezos has spent since 2002? Just in this one tax area, that’s $2.1 BILLION dollars. Imagine what he pays in other taxes.
The man who targeted Trump finds himself in a quandary, perhaps? That’s what Leftism eventually does to you. It spins you in circles, until you find yourself in the death spiral.
Welcome to the Free State of Florida, Jeff.
