From California to Washington to New York, states are trying to tax the very rich. The press keeps rehashing whether millionaires and billionaires will flee those states. Wrong question. The more important one is why we’re improvising tax policy state to state when it’s the federal government that should be dealing with health care, child care and affordability—all of which are national problems. Meanwhile, some Senate Democrats are proposing to take even more people out of the tax system entirely. None of these specific proposals make income taxes simpler or fairer, but they do suggest there’s an appetite for reform. ---Chapters:00:01:18 Announcements00:02:33 Retcon: Occupational Licenses00:06:16 Terms & Conditions: Progressive00:07:59  Big Pilcrow: Everyone Wants to Tax Millionaires00:38:23  Executive Orders: Unreadable Menus and Tax Complainer Merch00:41:42  Spiritual Sponsors: Dream Robin & the Nobel Laureate’s WNBA Contract Make Optimist Economy economically viable: https://optimisteconomy.com We have faces on the Optimist Economy YouTube channel⁠⁠. We’re also on Instagram at ⁠⁠@optimist_economy or TikTok at ⁠⁠@optimist_economy.  The party is at the Substack chatroom. In lieu of a “I’m better than you… because I pay taxes” T-shirt, can we offer you an Optimist Economy one?: https://merch.ambientinks.com/collections/optimisteconomy Got economics questions, anxieties, or executive orders? Send them to [email protected]