When will death-spiral states start imposing taxes on fleeing citizens?
Government debts are accrued on your behalf by elected officials for whom you had a chance to vote, all supposedly representing your interests. In a democracy, all citizens are obliged to pay the government’s bills as determined by the duly empowered taxing authorities – regardless of whether they voted for a particular officeholder or not. What’s to stop legislators from passing laws that make debt obligations due and payable by any citizen who decides to leave for another jurisdiction? After all, they don’t hesitate to take your money when you die.
Mayors and governors of most tax-and-spend, heavily unionized, low-growth cities and states are both desperate for revenue and tired of watching disgruntled citizens vote with their feet. Think how politically attractive it would be for them to make “economic deserters” pay their “fair share” of old debts. I can see the arguments already: “You can’t move away from credit card debt or commercial debt, so why should government debt be so easy to dodge?” Politicians could easily win kudos from both public employee unions and the overtaxed residents left behind, for the mere cost of enraging emigrants who won’t be around to exact retribution at the next election.