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Michero

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Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington and Wyoming seem to be the states with no income tax. Oregon, New Hampshire, Montana, Delaware and Alaska are the states with no sales tax. Of course these stats could be wrong: but the conclusion is clear, except for the name of the city. I like Ketchikan.

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Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington and Wyoming seem to be the states with no income tax. Oregon, New Hampshire, Montana, Delaware and Alaska are the states with no sales tax. Of course these stats could be wrong: but the conclusion is clear, except for the name of the city. I like Ketchikan.

Last thing I knew, New Hampshire didn't have an income tax OR a sales tax. There may be an "unearned" income tax. NH does have high property taxes, though, thanks to all the refugees from Taxachusetts. I lived in NH for years, though. I liked the little towns, where town meetings did really control local taxes and schools. Danbury, up north of Concord, is a nice town. But I love Portsmouth, however overdeveloped and touristy it has become.

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Last thing I knew, New Hampshire didn't have an income tax OR a sales tax.  There may be an "unearned" income tax.
Yeah, they are listed as having taxes on interest and dividends, which is why I sliced them. The property tax issue is big, but I don't know how to check the facts. Another option I should mention is state-crossing. I lived in Moscow ID and worked in Pullman WA for a year. No income tax in Washington, and rather low sales tax in Idaho: so that was ideal (maybe not as ideal as Alaska, taxwise, but there is the "Oh my god we gotta haul that to the North Pole" surcharge. BTW, the correct answer to the European question is Tromsø, though not for anything having to do with taxes.
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I've heard that Hong Kong is pretty close to laissez-faire capitalism.  Any truth to that?  If anyone knows.

Dividend income and capital gains are not taxed in Hong Kong. Honk Kong's income tax is called "Salaries Tax". As the name implies, non salary income is not taxed. [in this respect it's tax system seems to be the polar oppoisite of New Hampshire]. The maximum rate is 15%. That's one of the lowest rates in the world.

The maximum estate tax(inheritance tax) is 15% (Compared to 50% in the US).

For more details -

http://www.lowtax.net/lowtax/html/hongkong...x.html#property

Honk Kong had been pretty close to laissez-faire capitalism till 1997 while it was a British colony. From 1997 onwards it had been ruled by China (Technically it is a part of China now) and the policies of the government are steadlilly moving away from capitalism. For example, till recently there were no mandatory social security contributions, but that changed in the year 2000.

Property prices and rents are very very high in Hong Kong. This is likely to be a disincentive for any individual who may think of moving there.

Also, respect for civil liberties are unlikely to be first rate.

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<snip> Texas <snip>seem to be the states with no income tax. Oregon, New Hampshire, Montana, Delaware and Alaska are the states with no sales tax. Of course these stats could be wrong: but the conclusion is clear, except for the name of the city. I like Ketchikan. 

 

As people have seen in other posts I'm a died-in-the-wool Texian (nope that isn't misspelled) but we do have relatively high property taxes. Sales taxes in most urban areas average 8 1/2% with some of the highest hotel/motel and car rental taxes (depending on the urban area) in the country. So don't let the non-existent income tax rate alone fool you. Mind you, you'll still find a harder to beat place in the US when it comes to overall cost of living, especially in Houston.

Then there are also rules about community property and relatively reasonable estate laws that make it a good place to die compared to others. Funny how rarely people look at how onerous their states estate laws are until it's too late or they are in the final stages of estate planning. But then I do that sort of thing for a living and it's always on my mind. It's an employment at will state and the city of Houston is completely zoning free so you can set your business up wherever you want for the most part. Venture capital is pretty easy to find as business sprout up pretty easily here of all sizes. For every Enron, there is a Sysco Foods, Royal Dutch Shell, Texaco, Continental Air, Farouk, etc.

Being spread out with large numbers of suburbs there is plenty of opportunity for entrepreneurs to benefit from servicing them and of course numerous major employers etc. like you'd expect from the 4th largest city in America and the most active port in America. Yes, sorry New York and LA, Houston and Barbers Cut do move more tonnage.... You've got beaches, techie communities, and just about the most racially and ethnically balanced population in the US from what I remember.

That's about it for my chamber of commerce spiel.

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Tennessee has no state income tax but they keep trying to push one through every year. The last time as a "compromise" they raised the sales tax to 9.25 % and that incluedes everything from groceries to clothes. The Feds just passed law where you can take a deduction all the sales tax you pay which helps. The air quality is really low here and of course there are a lot of rednecks. Other than that its an ok place to live. :thumbsup:

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Live where you can best do the work you love while accumulating the most capital you can, conditioned on important non-economic conditions.

New Jersey has terrible taxes (I pay over $15,000/yr of state and local taxes alone). I get to pay New York State and New York City taxes too, thanks to work on Wall St. But for the time being, it's still the best place for me to live because my wife and I can both earn 6 digit incomes here.

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I've heard that Hong Kong is pretty close to laissez-faire capitalism.  Any truth to that?  If anyone knows.

Hong Kong is China now, so I do not know. Before that the tax rates were extremely low. The 15% number is right, but there was also a very high "Standard Deduction". For a typical middle class person about 30% of the salary was allowed as a std. deduduction. Then, the 15% was applied. That means that it was effectively a 10% tax.

Further (again pre-China) there was no general sales tax (i.e. no sales tax across the board). The taxes that were in place were those that were imposed to curb buying: the tax on cars and gas was very steep. The government's rationale was that they didn't want too many cars in the tiny island city-state. Truckers would regularly smuggle in gas from China.

On other things -- most things -- there was no sales tax and no customs duties. Many things were cheaper in Hongkong than in the places they were manufactured!

Hong Kong was (maybe still is) the place for a "city-person". Fast paced, crowds, booming, all the noise, all the gadgets, crowds, tall glass skyscrapers, shops, back-alleys, subways, ferry, ... did I mention crowds?

Definitely well worth a visit (at least pore-China). Personally, I wouldn't want to stay there... my preference is for the rural/suburban.

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Estes Park, Colorado. Aside from the fact that it is the area in which Galt's Gulch is supposed to be, I went there every summer from age the age of 5 to the age of 19, with my family, and it is quite possibly my favorite place in the whole world. I don't know much about the political atmosphere of the place but, man...it's the most perfect little town I've ever seen.

Something Objectivists like to have is the opportunity to be proud of individual achievement. Well, it is situated smack in the middle of Rocky Mountain National Park, so there are plenty of opportunities to stand on a mountain-top and be proud of the fact that you just climbed a mountain. It's also an ideal place if you want to run a small business.

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As to the best place in Europe, it would NOT be Tromsø. I have no idea what the taxes are like, granted, but i lived there for three years and can assure you it is no place for an Objectivist, because it is as near communistic as it gets in Norway. After all, they are not that far from the Russian border and it was Stalin's troops that "liberated" that part of the world from the Nazis. That might have been way back when, but history has a way of not going away up there.

Economically, they may not try to kill you, but socially is another story. Thats why they are a socialist country, because they control very effectively by social means. If this does not make sense to anyone, i suggest reading AR's "We the Living" as a perfect illustration of the cohesion that is mandated and upheld in such societies by intimidation and force. (Look esp. at how the Party members are made to behave.)

The entire place is run by graft and pull, the players constantly shifting and trading status and allegiances. This is what Cherryl Taggart in "Atlas Shrugged" called "the goo."

The only objective standard by which you will be judged there is that you are a foreigner, and (maybe) an American foreigner (which comes off as worse), and if you are an Objectivist, they will treat you the same way the Soviets treated the "socially undesirable."

I'm quite sorry that this is a bit rambling, but i think that Tromsø would be a less than ideal choice.

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As to the best place in Europe, it would NOT be Tromsø.
Your criticisms may well be true, and could even be relatively significant if you are a single young person trying to create a social life out of local resources, but your criticisms only address the absolute goodness of the place. What you describe is true of Europe in general: CF gave the answer. We're now talking about within the context of Europe.
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Estes Park, Colorado.  Aside from the fact that it is the area in which Galt's Gulch is supposed to be, I went there every summer from age the age of 5 to the age of 19, with my family, and it is quite possibly my favorite place in the whole world.  I don't know much about the political atmosphere of the place but, man...it's the most perfect little town I've ever seen.

Park High School Class of 1990.

I spent my middle school, and high school years in Estes Park. Great city although I haven't been there in going on 12 years.

As for the political atmosphere we were in a grey area. We lived 12 miles outside of town, so my folks had little involvement in city matters. I know taxes in Estes were high which is why my folks moved us so far out of town, an my parents worked "in the valley".

Come to think of it we used to shop, "in the valley" as well. We would drive 40+ miles to Longmont, or Loveland, twice a month to buy groceries.

I remember the love/hate relationship we had with terrorists, I mean tourists.

Sorry if this is off topic, but any mention of Estes makes me a bit nostalgic. I'll stop now before I really get going. hehe.

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Why exactly is Estes Park great for small business owners? My mother was thinking about moving out to colorado to start a dental practice, so I might be able to point her in the Estes direction...

Estes Park, Colorado.  Aside from the fact that it is the area in which Galt's Gulch is supposed to be, I went there every summer from age the age of 5 to the age of 19, with my family, and it is quite possibly my favorite place in the whole world.  I don't know much about the political atmosphere of the place but, man...it's the most perfect little town I've ever seen.

Something Objectivists like to have is the opportunity to be proud of individual achievement.  Well, it is situated smack in the middle of Rocky Mountain National Park, so there are plenty of opportunities to stand on a mountain-top and be proud of the fact that you just climbed a mountain.  It's also an ideal place if you want to run a small business.

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Perhaps I should have clarified. It's a great place for a retired couple to move, start a little bookstore, and live out their years enjoying the scenery. Or, perhaps, if you want to start a company that makes little glass bowls and sculptures, it would be perfect, because there are hundreds of dorky little tourist shops that would be thrilled to buy up your entire inventory. If you're wanting to start a more technologically-oriented business, it may not be the place for you. Don't know much about what it takes to run a dentist's, so I'm afraid I can't give you any information on whether or not anymore are needed in Galt's Gulch.

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Haha. I can really just hear the contempt you have for tourists. Honestly I don't have a clue what it takes either. All I know is that Colorado is one of the few states she can do it. Some thing to do with licenses etc.

Perhaps I should have clarified.  It's a great place for a retired couple to move, start a little bookstore, and live out their years enjoying the scenery.  Or, perhaps, if you want to start a company that makes little glass bowls and sculptures, it would be perfect, because there are hundreds of dorky little tourist shops that would be thrilled to buy up your entire inventory.  If you're wanting to start a more technologically-oriented business, it may not be the place for you.  Don't know much about what it takes to run a dentist's, so I'm afraid I can't give you any information on whether or not anymore are needed in Galt's Gulch.

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Regarding Tromsø,

It is true that i only dealt with the nature of the place, and may have not clearly made the overarching point: that Tromsø is in fact worse than many other places in Europe. It has a very peculiar nature that even Norwegians regard with suspicion.

All the ex-pats (naturally) clung together and many of the detractors thought it was a more repressive place than others they had lived in Europe. This is only subjective, however Norway (and esp. the North) is very proud of being 50 to 100 years behind the rest of the world. Their nationalism is amazing.

There is a social code in the country that is written and taught in schools. It is probably the most blatantly evil document of collectivist thought after the Communist Manifesto. It (Jante låven) is a list of ten commandments denying the individual and is held in as high regard as the usual ten. Because of its isolation, the north holds on more firmly to this doctrine than other parts of the country.

Tromsø is more predatory and pernicious than most paces in Europe.

Although me and the town have a history, it boils down to this: it's just worse.

-GS :dough:

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Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington and Wyoming seem to be the states with no income tax. Oregon, New Hampshire, Montana, Delaware and Alaska are the states with no sales tax. Of course these stats could be wrong: but the conclusion is clear, except for the name of the city. I like Ketchikan.

WOW! I didn't know that! There is a state where you don't have to pay income taxes?

How does the state get its money then?

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There is a state where you don't have to pay income taxes? How does the state get its money then?
There are other taxes: property tax, sales tax. Also, I suppose, the rules for taxes on businesses may be different from the rules for taxes on individuals.

I do not think one ought to be choosing a state based on the taxes, though that is part of the "cost of living" factor, which in itself is part of the larger decision. Also, overall tax rates could be an indicator of how "progressive" (read "socialist") a state is.

Using tax-rates to decide where to live, here is a suggestion: live and work in Vancouver, WA. It is a suburb of Portland, OR. No state income tax in Washinton state. Then, do all your shopping in Portland and the Oregonian suburbs -- no sales tax. [We have some Portland folks here. I have a feeling they're going to tell me that this won't work, because the bureaucrats have covered this "loophole"].

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