Of Boeing, economic policies, and growth

I wrote recently about the Obama Administration’s efforts to stop Boeing from moving production of its new “Dreamliner” plane to South Carolina.

While that issue is interesting enough as a case of Washington overreach and the political power of labor unions, there is a “must read” article in today’s Wall Street Journal that shows how New Mexico can adopt two simple policies to spur economic growth.

As Art Laffer and Stephen Moore point out:

Two policies have consistently stood out as the most important in predicting where jobs will be created and incomes will rise. First, states with no income tax generally outperform high income tax states. Second, states that have right-to-work laws grow faster than states with forced unionism.

While other policies and reforms can and will have their positive impacts, eliminating personal income taxes and forced union represent the most important battles that fiscal conservatives and free marketeers can fight.