In the States, it is popular to assume higher taxes are always and in every situation bad for business. There is no statistical data to support such a claim, and there is compelling evidence to the contrary (or at the very least suggesting that personal income tax rates and business prosperity are not inextricably related, as many Republicans would have us believe). Our collective inability to have a rational discussion on tax policies is crippling and will eventually bankrupt our government. From the article:

There is precious little evidence to suggest that our low taxes have done much for entrepreneurs - or even for the economy as a whole. “It’s actually quite hard to say how tax policy affects an economy,” says Joel Slemrod, a University of Michigan professor who served on the Council of Economic Advisers under Ronald Reagan. Slemrod says there is no statistical evidence to prove that low taxes result in economic prosperity. Some of the most prosperous countries - for instance, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, and, yes, Norway - also have some of the highest taxes. Norway, which in 2009 had the world’s highest per-capita income, avoided the brunt of the financial crisis: From 2006-2009, it’s economy grew nearly 3 percent. The American economy grew less than one-tenth of a percent during the same period.

Also, note the payroll differences in high-tax Oslo, Norway versus New York City. To employ a software engineer at a $100,000 salary costs $116,603 after taxes and benefits. In New York City, it costs $122,490 for a single person, and $138,314 for an employee with a family.