When and Why Golden Geese Take Wing

When and Why Golden Geese Take Wing
"My friend Lynn Chu has boiled down the basis for a just, prosperous society:

“It is very easy to spend other people's money, thus eliminating all of the vital discrimination about the devils in the details which are knowable only at the level of the individual. This is the main justification for the protection of individual liberty against autocracy other than the clarity of the moral imperative of human rights as the privileges and immunities of the individual in society.”

When Great Britain turned over Hong Kong at the expiration of its lease, the Chinese government promised to leave its democratic institutions and law alone. 
Bit by bit, that promise has been eroded until  recently China pressured the local authorities to agree to an extradition treaty that would allow them to extradite from the former colony and try in China anyone, even someone merely transiting through its airport.

Day after day the residents in the millions resisted, marching en masse through the streets, closing down schools and shops as employers allowed workers leave to work at home and demonstrate...

...Indeed, by several accounts, faced with  the threat of Chinese tyranny, capital has already been fleeing the colony for elsewhere. 

Physical security and rule of law matter. 

And an independent and fair judicial system.

One tycoon, who considers himself potentially politically exposed, has started shifting more than $100 million from a local Citibank account to a Citibank account in Singapore, according to an adviser involved in the transactions. 

“It’s started. We’re hearing others are doing it, too, but no-one is going to go on parade that they are leaving,” the adviser said. “The fear is that the bar is coming right down on Beijing’s ability to get your assets in Hong Kong. Singapore is the favored destination.”..

The people who took to the streets in protest surely understand what China and Democratic state legislatures like those in California, New York, and Illinois do not: 

Capital is attracted to and invested in those places where the laws are fair and protect people and property, and where government overreach and exorbitant taxes are in check..."

Much, much more.

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