The once-Great Britain seems determined to supply us, the United States, with object lessons that we, on the right, pay attention to and the left ignores. 

The latest such incident involves the United Kingdom's tax policy - and how high-earning Brits (by high-earning, we mean productive) are fleeing to greener, lower-tax pastures.

Fresh figures this week showed that the British Government is having to borrow more than expected, as tax income typically paid by the wealthiest has disappointed since the start of the year.

Lower capital gains taxes, levies on self-assessed income and a weak growth in financial services bonuses have also contributed to the dire picture for (Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel) Reeves.

Now, this first bit here should come as no surprise to anyone with any knowledge of economics who didn't attend Boston University. Lower capital gains taxes generally have the opposite effect as claimed; what you tax, you get less of, and if you tax capital gains at an excessive level (as in, above zero), it has a chilling effect on business development.

But here's the real problem the UK faces.

The list of wealthy non-doms and British business owners fleeing the UK is also growing longer by the day, with places such as Dubai, Italy and Greece mopping up Britain’s richest émigrés.

Last week, Goldman Sachs’ most senior banker outside the US, Richard Gnodde, and British billionaire brothers Ian and Richard Livingstone became the latest to shift their tax domicile outside the UK. They join Egypt’s richest man, Nassef Sawiris, who co-owns Aston Villa Football Club.

And steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, whose family is worth £15bn, is expected to follow.

The outflow of the productive from Britain is remarkable; one would almost think it's California.

Britain is in trouble. pic.twitter.com/MCM7BEChFr

— Ward Clark (@TheGreatLander) April 28, 2025

It wasn't all that long ago that Great Britain was still great. They were almost like America, only on the metric system, except for their money, with all that shillings and bobs and pence and quids nonsense. But Great Britain was once an industrial power with a robust middle class.

The Labour Party has pretty much ended that, and now they are apparently standing on the shores and looking on in confusion as anyone who has a net worth more than forty quid, a guinea, and six shillings is fleeing for the golden sand beaches of Anywhere-But-Here.

See Also: An Economist's Take on Tariffs: They May Be Bad, but Income Taxes Are Worse

Beware: People Who Say Paying Taxes Is Patriotic, Always Want to Make You Pay More

Rachel Reeves may be starting to get it:

“People are leaving on the basis that they can, whereas before they had to be in one place to work. They can work from anywhere now. We’ve got people saying they want to go because they’re not happy with the taxation, the politics or other options that have opened up. They can have the same lifestyle but with a warmer climate, less taxation,” she says.

Really? You're just now figuring this out? Thomas Sowell, Milton Friedman, and many others figured this out decades ago, and the rise of modern technology allowing for telecommunity has just kicked it up to the next level.

Watch the United Kingdom, though, folks, and remember: This is what the Democrats would like to do to us here. In California, they already have.

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