This $5 Trillion Time Bomb Will Devastate Americans
by Nick Giambruno via InternationalMan.com,
ZeroHedge.com
Aug 9, 2017
Over 3,000 millionaires have fled Chicago in recent months.
This is the largest outflow of wealthy people from any US city right now. It’s also one of the largest outflows of wealthy people in the world.
But it’s not just millionaires… Every five minutes someone leaves Illinois.
In a recent poll, 47% of people in Illinois said they want to leave the state. Over the last decade, more than half a million people have done just that.
This is the largest outflow of people from any state in the country.
The people who leave are generally better educated, more skilled, and earn more money than those who stay. Entire towns of affluent Illinois refugees have sprouted up in Florida, Arizona, and other states.
Illinois is bleeding productive people.
This is a major warning sign.
Wealthy people are often the first to leave a bad situation. They have the means to simply get up and go. And when they do, they take their money and their businesses with them.
This hurts the local property market and the rest of the local economy.
Many of Illinois’ millionaires own businesses that employ large numbers of people. As they leave, there are fewer people and businesses left to shoulder the state’s enormous and growing financial burdens.
Many of these people are leaving for one simple reason: rising taxes.
Illinois’ leftist tax-and-spend politicians are continuing to increase all sorts of taxes, which were already high in the first place.
The state just passed a 32% income tax hike.
Rising taxes are pushing more and more productive people to make the chicken run… and at the worst possible moment for the state’s coffers.
Illinois is the most financially distressed state in the US. Every month, it spends $600 million more than it takes in. It’s now $15 billion behind on its bills and counting.
Illinois is about to become America’s first failed state.
Even its governor has described it as a “banana republic.”
Today, Illinois can’t pay contractors to fix the roads. It doesn’t have enough cash to pay lottery winners. (What happened to the money it collected selling lottery tickets?)
The state can’t even afford food for its prisoners.
Here are the sad facts. Illinois has:
Nearly $15 billion in overdue bills (including $800 million in interest).
A $7 billion budget deficit.
And an eye-watering $250 billion bottomless pit of unfunded pension obligations.
For perspective, $250 billion is more than the combined market value of Allstate, Boeing, United Continental, and Caterpillar, four large Illinois companies.
This $250 billion tab is one of the worst public pension crises in the US.
The Rest…HERE
