You Can't Always Get What You Want ... but You Can Move Around and Improve Your Situation

by Martin Kennedy

"The whole business thing is predicated a lot on the tax laws.... It's why we rehearse in Canada and not in the U.S.  A lot of our astute moves have been basically keeping up with tax laws, where to go, where not to put it. Whether to sit on it or not. We left England because we'd be paying 98 cents on the dollar. We left and they lost out. No taxes at all."  

— New Yorker, Nov. 1, 2010, p. 104

That's not a CEO but just Keith Richards of Rolling Stones fame.  People and firms respond to incentives.  The editors of Site Selection Magazine have decided that Tennessee ranks second in the nation in terms of business climate.  As reported in the Daily News Journal (Murfreesboro, TN):

In compiling the rankings, site selectors were asked to rank the most important factors in making decisions about investment. They cited workforce development, state and local tax policy and transportation infrastructure as their top three factors.

Martin Kennedy

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Martin Kennedy teaches economics at MTSU. Views expressed are not necessarily those of the Jones College. 

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