For all the lofty reports lately of a capitalist reformation and new age economics that recognize natural and social capital in addition to financial capital, there's this.
In the U.S., five states are poised to begin actively poaching California companies. What is the weakness they're lining up to exploit? Why it's an insidious, voter-approved initiative to raise income taxes to finance education.
That's driven knowledge-based companies such as Google, Apple and SolarCity to make tracks for backward, low-tax states like Texas, Arizona, Virginia and Nevada. They want highly-educated workers. They just don't want to have to chip in to pay for educating them.
Texas, Arizona and Nevada smelled blood in the water and are all coordinating programs for California companies looking to expand or relocate.
A recent report by Thumbtack.com, a San Francisco-based website that links service providers with customers, zeroed in on small businesses. The company doled out letter grades for the most and least small business-friendy states and cities.
California got a "D." But hey, that's up from an "F" last year.
Locations were evaluated in 11 categories, including taxes, ease of hiring, regulation and ease of starting a new business. Overall small business friendliness was calculated with survey answers from more than 7,500 businesses to specific questions about how open the state or city seems to their companies.
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