Peter Rex: I’m Leaving Seattle for Texas So My Employees Can Be Free | Hacker News Reader

Peter Rex: I’m Leaving Seattle for Texas So My Employees Can Be Free

wsj.com

12 pointsfoolinaround12 comments

Free to be fired at any time for any reason?

Free to be discriminated against in a state where the police officers are the ones doing the most harm to others at peaceful protests?

Free to catch COVID-19 in a state where the governor has said that he will prohibit any city from passing laws that require masks?

Yeah, I don’t think he is at all concerned about the freedom of his employees.

> Free to catch COVID-19 in a state where the governor has said that he will prohibit any city from passing laws that require masks?

Sure, except you should consider the death rate in Texas compared to some of the Dem run states (deaths per 100,000 attributed to COVID-19):

NJ: 167

NY: 161

CT: 121

MA: 116

RI: 87

DC: 77

LA: 68

MI: 61

IL: 54

DW: 52

Then, there's TX: 8

Time to question some of those assumptions...

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1109011/coronavirus-covi...

This is just a conservative grievance list. Nothing to do with being “free”, he just doesn’t like the fact that the west coast is a certain kind of liberal. Which is fine, but it’s disingenuous as presented.

Being able to buy the same house for half the price seems like enough to make one feel a bit more "free".

King county has 0.953% property tax per [2].

Austin currently has 1.803% property taxes [1], and could potentially have property taxes of 2.25% if [3] a plan to increase property taxes by 25% for a public transit plan. (In which case property taxes for homes half the price in Austin will be greater than a home costing 2x more in King County)

1. https://smartasset.com/taxes/texas-property-tax-calculator

2. https://smartasset.com/taxes/king-county-washington-property...

3. https://thetexan.news/austin-proposes-25-percent-property-ta...

This is more than offset by the lack of state income tax.

Where? Washington state has no state income tax either.

The funny part is that Austin is one of the most liberal areas in Texas... ;-)

As another poster said, no state income tax is a giant win.

Who is this Peter Rex? I just went to rexteams.com The site is quite vague. After doing some googling it looks like this is one of those guys that's like in the business of selling business. They do a lot of lectures and stuff.

After reading the article, I’m not sure he isn’t just moving the company to Texas so he can avoid paying taxes on the business income. That move would effectively transfer the tax burden to his employees through property tax. They won’t notice until they buy a house... but, his business will. He certainly launched in some of the highest taxed places on the West Coast. Seems like he’s regretting that.

Median home value in Austin is $400k. Seattle is nearly double that. Assuming the employees want to move and will still be paid the same, they'll make out like bandits.

http://archive.vn/HmpR6 - around paywall...

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