Be sure to check out the new episode of LIBH, it goes live at 11AM ET!

"Many of the Communist Party's leaders stand convicted, in courts and in the public mind, of falsehood and deceit, but they are still on the march, burrowing deeper and deeper into our system of democracy.
There is a sneer behind their every smile and a vicious lie in their every promise of Utopia. If the land whose banners they carry is Utopia, then let them go there and enjoy it! America is good enough for us and we do not want it tainted by the poisons of foreign isms."

J. Edgar Hoover
Director, FBI
June 3, 1940

Fundamentally, the success of a state's economy, cultural makeup, quality of life and many other things is not determined by the presence or absence of a state income tax, or the presence or absence of property taxes. Perhaps more than any other single thing, it is determined by the amount of population and zoning. Since high tax rates have fallen out of favor almost universally, statists have found an alternate way of generating more tax revenue: Adding population and housing, which involves changing zoning from agricultural / industrial to residential.
This inflates property values far beyond true market conditions and generates more revenue for the state and local governments, while depleting more and more of the wealth / savings of the middle class. Since this is usually coupled with inflationary spending, it can be said that they take more of your money, and erode what money you have left. It is the proliferation of homes, and the undermining of the ability of anyone to own a home...