Quote ="JerryChicken"This theory would only be found to be true if indeed there were no "rich" left in the country by, say, 1977, after at least a couple of decades of high rates of income tax for high earners.
Truth was that there was a wave of moaning and wailing from the "rich" and threats of "I'll go abroad" but when push came to shove and the wife asked "Where will we be emigrating to then dear", the bravado faded with the realisation that emigrating to a country with low or no tax would probably destroy their social and family lives.
Moral of the story is to tell anyone who repeats the moan "I'll go abroad if they tax me at 50%" to go ahead, sell the house and take the family somewhere cheaper, go on, do it now...they won't.'"
Well in my case it wasn't the rich that took action but I went abroad in 1977 having got tired of the pay freeze and rising mortgage interest rates. I managed to quadruple my income (tax free) and returned after the winter of discontent so its not a just theory as I met plenty of others who did the same. This was before we started a family so it was an easy decision.