S15 EP67: Hour 2 - The Berlin Wall For Blue States

·37 min·3 clips

Erick Erickson compares progressive states' new exit taxes to the Berlin Wall, designed to trap residents in failing policies.

The episode opens with promotional offers for Erickson's email newsletter and show notes, including access to paywalled articles. Erickson then introduces the main topic: progressive states considering or passing exit taxes to combat revenue losses from residents moving to lower-tax areas. He focuses on Washington State's millionaire tax, which he argues violates the state constitution, drawing a comparison to the Soviet Union's paper rights versus reality. Erickson lists examples of companies and billionaires leaving states like Washington, California, and New York, citing Starbucks, Boeing, and ExxonMobil. He expands the discussion to include urban issues, criticizing progressive policies on crime enforcement and public transportation that he claims make cities unsafe and inefficient. A caller named Jesse brings up a murder case in Charlotte where the defendant was deemed incompetent for trial, leading Erickson to advocate for incarceration and institutionalization of the mentally ill and homeless. Another caller, John, suggests moving homeless people to treatment facilities outside cities, which Erickson supports while emphasizing government responsibility. Erickson critiques proposed wealth taxes, using Apple stock fluctuations to illustrate impracticalities. He also touches on topics like the United Nations' relevance, government shutdowns, and sponsors including Renai water heaters and Vision Computers. The episode blends political commentary with listener interactions and advertisements, maintaining a conservative critique of progressive governance.

As heard by us

An Apple share's small moves become a concrete test case for Erickson's wealth-tax critique.

Eric Erickson frames this stretch around a plain practical challenge for wealth taxes: how to value an asset that has not been sold. He moves from an Apple share ticking up and down by cents to the Dow Jones shifting between quoted values, pressing on the question of which…

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Why you'd press play

You want a wealth-tax argument you can follow down to the cent? Start with the Apple share.

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