WSJ: How to save Detroit – turn it into Hong Kong
Very interesting idea… could be a fascinating test of an entirely different method of taxation and incentivizing business.
I know how to fix Detroit, because it reminds me of another favorite place, Hong Kong—two things so opposite that they evoke each other the way any Kardashian is a reminder that you love home and mother.
WSJ: By P. J. O’ROURKE Jan. 9, 2014 1:12 p.m. ET
Hong Kong’s per capita GDP is among the highest in the world. But it was once a worse mess than Detroit. Devastated by Japanese occupation, the British colony’s population had declined from 1.6 million in 1941 to 600,000 by 1945. Then, after the 1949 communist victory on the mainland, a million refugees arrived. Most of them were penniless. Britain’s Labor government was penniless, too.
Hong Kong had the good fortune to get John (later Sir John) Cowperthwaite. What did he change?
Things like taxes. Even now, Hong Kong has no sales tax; no VAT; no taxes on capital gains, interest income or earnings outside Hong Kong; no import or export duties; and a top personal income-tax rate of 15%.
Read the rest at http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303848104579308612337146296
Chez Froggie 