A Stitch in Haste

...when it's happening somewhere else:

The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) said the [U.K.] chancellor could raise £147m a year and cut death duty for up to 90% of people.
...
IPPR researcher Dominic Maxwell said the proposals would counter a "worrying" rise in inequality.
...
"As well as being fairer to those who inherit assets, this reform would also benefit those born with nothing, through a beefed-up Child Trust Fund," said Mr Maxwell.
...
The 50% rate would apply to inheritance over £763,000 so that only the 13% of estates over £808,000 would lose out.

Now if I were a super-rich person in the U.K. and such a confiscatory tax were enacted, I'd certainly consider repatriating (or at least repatriating my assets) to somewhere that had a more favorable estate tax system, like the U.S. (at least for now).

And having all the rich in Britain move here would certainly help that "worrying rise in inequality" over there...if not quite in the way the central planners envisioned.

This is exactly the kind of calculus that occurs in the U.S., as high-income and middle-income people flee oppressive local taxes (such as those in New York) for tax-advantaged states such as Nevada (exactly what my parents did a year ago).

If the numbers add up, such a move can even apply to nations.

The U.K. has come such a long way since the pre-Thatcher era. Too bad there are still some over there who think that other people's assets are nothing more than a "resource" to be plundered.

UPDATE: The good folks at Samizdata provide a local perspective on the outrageous proposal.