Conservative and libertarian policies:
Tax cuts = less government revenue, literally defunding the state.
Privatization = less revenue going to the government, more to the private market, and due to tax cuts, that money isn’t coming back to government.
Conclusion, the right wing are conducting anti-patriotic economic attacks on the state… Often doing so in a targeted way, funded by billionaire think tanks.
It’s a major issue that needs to be named, and discussed more openly.
Almost as if it is (has always been) class warfare.
Shhhh…
- conservatives
We’re talking local here, not national.
Even if they started taxing the rich, there wouldn’t be many to tax in the area.
The median household income in Cumberland was $47,235 in 2021, which marked an an increase of 903(1.95%) from $46,332 in 2020. This income is 63.31% of the U.S. median household income of $74,606 (all incomes in 2022 inflation-adjusted dollars).
Top 5%: The mean household income for the wealthiest population (top 5%) is 302,286, which is 173.49% higher compared to the highest quintile, and 3113.14% higher compared to the lowest quintile.
https://www.neilsberg.com/insights/cumberland-md-median-household-income/#income-by-quintile
$300,000 is upper middle class, just barely enough to maybe call “rich”. Even so, it’s likely the only reason they live there is low taxes. We’re not talking national taxes here, this is local, and they can be absolutely sure if they locally tax those wealthier people any more than they are, they’ll move away.
They absolutely should do that, and give a firm middle finger to the back of the wealthy assholes as they move to their new mansion in whatever backwater they’re moving to next, but it doesn’t solve the inherent problem: the tax base is too small and too poor.
This is just a mountain town that has died slowly after the death of industry there post World War II, and frankly there is no good way to save it because there’s no way to convince anybody to take their industries up there. The state can subsidize it but it’s not going to grow.
What they’re doing here is trying to use the new changes in remote work to potentially trigger a revitalization and expand the tax base. Even then, they’re only giving it to 10 individuals, not anybody that moves there as the meme is implying. It may work, but I have my doubts.
It is discussed openly - how to do it again and again and again, discussed over and over ad nauseum, like Kansas going bankrupt repeatedly, or how other states hear how Florida is doing and say “wowie, lemme try that too!” (while expecting the exact opposite outcome, bc “this time will be different”) If you don’t want to take my words at face value alone, check out the YouTube channel Innuendo Studios that has some amazing content especially The Alt Right Playbook.
The problem is that collectively, as a society, we are very dumb. In fact it is entirely possible that we are too stupid to survive, but I guess we’ll see. We cannot control others though, and it remains to be seen whether we will bother to control ourselves to do what is correct, i.e. to git sum edumacashun ourselves and make a better alternative.
We are far too stupid individually.
And we think communism and socialism are bad.
So corporations and oligarchs take everything.
Communism and socialism are bad, it’s just that so is everything else, but not equally so.
Democracy and capitalism bear the cost of remaining eternally vigilant, which we have
failedrefused to do.
They also doing anything about the conservative culture that likely caused their brain drain in the first place?
It’s actually much less conservative than the surrounding areas. Though admittedly it only takes a stone’s throw to get into some pretty gruesome backwoods. The real issue is that there aren’t any jobs in the area. It’s too out of the way for tourism, all the factories have closed down, and the railroad just isn’t what it used to be.
So functionally they hand you money, you can’t find a job that pays your bills, so you leave and they’ve gained nothing. Or is the subsidy ongoing as long as they’re short on people (haha until the end of time!) Or is there something else in place to help keep people there?
Yeah. Seems pointless, but I bet they’re trying to attract folks with work-from-home jobs.
There’s a big migration of work-from-home folks out to areas where they can have bigger homes, gardens and such.
I think the theory is that whichever towns or cities attract these folks first will grow into long term preferred work-from-home destinations, using the tax revenue and voting habits of the first folks to move in.
It’s a gamble, but an interesting one.
Start with bringing in the fiber. I can deal without overnight delivery, a good sushi place or a brewpub, but I draw the line at fiber
Yep. I think high quality Internet roll-out will make or break some of these plans.
For WFH crows the town needs fiber, and in another post he stated the town doesn’t have that.
I can see your point and that’s what I figured they were trying to attract
How much are the taxes? $20,000.
I can’t get over how I’m learning about small town economic policies via a meme. Thanks for spreading awareness!
This Washington Post article talks about the policy and how other small cities are trying the same thing https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/08/30/cumberland-maryland-revival/
This is a new thing that smaller towns are trying to do to take advantage of an increase in remote work.
The meme is also misleading because it’s implying that this is something they’re giving to everyone that moves there for a limited time, when it is only 10 people. It’s also implying that there’s not enough people there to pay taxes, which doesn’t actually make sense because that’s not how taxes work. There would definitely be enough tax income if they didn’t care about the future of the town. What they’re trying to do is revitalize the area and trigger growth, and they need more income to fund that revitalization.
I fucking miss MD…taxes are no worse than other places. Plus Deep Creek lake and Accident MD!
I’m a school bus driver (in PA) and one of my colleagues is leaving to live and work in rural MD. The coolest thing about the gig there is that you get to take your school bus home at the end of your run, which generally picks up and drops off kids from the area you live in. In fact you have to take your bus home since they don’t have parking spaces for them at the schools.
The uncool part is that the pay is shit with no benefits, but at least that keeps you in line with all the other residents.
Retirees. There are millions of workers in the DC/Baltimore area, looking for a cheaper place to retire. This is sort of in the area and much cheaper.
My ex-SIL frequently spoke about looking over the border into West Virginia as a place to buy cheap land for retirement, however her priority was access to breweries and being able to visit the city, but Cumberland is awfully far out for that
No, it’s to attract people with jobs. Explicitly.
I’m not sure why there’s all this guessing and pontificating going on in here, you can just look the story up.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/08/30/cumberland-maryland-revival/
Friendly reminder that you can have a libertarian communist commune. Libertarianism is not a left-right political ideology.
I read the book “A Libertarian Walked into a Bear” and I found the range of Libertarian attitudes interesting — there was at least one Libertarian in the book who explicitly identified as communist.
In my personal opinion, the core defining trait that makes someone libertarian is adherence to the non aggression policy. If they are capable of that then they are libertarian in my book. Even if I disagree on other aspects of their ideology.
But that’s the whole debate, isn’t it? What is and isn’t aggression?
I don’t understand where you’re getting a debate from. It’s pretty easy to summarize as. Don’t shit in the Common well don’t pollute the common air. Don’t trespass on your neighbor’s property. Don’t touch your neighbor’s things. Never resort to violence unless for self-defense.
Property is theft!
That’s an opinion. I don’t know where you found it but it’s an opinion.
“I am Andrew Ryan and I am here to ask you a question.”
