Whenever liberals want to raise taxes on millionaires or businesses, conservatives start saying that if we raise taxes, those people will take their money elsewhere. This argument came up in New York, when Gov. Cuomo rejected a millionaire's tax in favor of a budget that cut funding for schools, homeless shelters, and a slew of other programs that help both normal people and the less well off. New Yorkers were supposed to worry that if the state raised taxes, all of the bankers, who do provide a notable chunk of the state's tax revenue, would move to Connecticut.

The Tidewater Pipe Line Company began building the first long-distance oil pipeline in 1878. The 110-mile project, which ran across Pennsylvania, was a bid to run around John D. Rockefeller's all-powerful Standard Oil Company. Standard Oil had a range of tricks to fight against Tidewater, including bribing Maryland legislators to bar the pipeline from their state and buying up land that the pipeline might run over.