Check out the per capita state tax confiscation in your state. Be aware that, as Stateline.org notes, this is not the entire story:
Because the Census numbers don’t include tax levies by local governments, which often pick up certain state services, economists say a better measure of tax burdens nationwide is a snapshot of both state and local tax collections.
Is your state government making an effort to move up in the rankings?
What’s the key to that spendy pair of jeans:
“Right now you could have a pair of jeans that cost $1,000, and people would buy them,” Lawrence Scott, the owner of Pittsburgh Jeans Company, said last week. What, Mr. Scott was asked, is the indispensable element in the making of a perfect pair of luxury jeans?
“Same as always,” he said. “It’s going to come down to how your behind looks when you pour yourself into them. No matter how good the wash or the detail or the label, if it doesn’t look good on a behind, it won’t sell.”
Well, I don’t plan on pouring my butt into my jeans anytime soon so I’ll be perfectly happy to get my next pair, like my last pair, on sale at a nearby mervyn’s: maybe $30. I’ll find something a little more useful to do with the savings…