Why hasn’t Australia seen a shift towards economic rationalism along the lines of what has recently played out in the United States? One explanation is the absence of a cathartic internal crisis.

In the US, voters have had the ability to evaluate the economic performance of two colliding business models in the form of key Democrat-led states like California, New Jersey and New York vis-à-vis their Republican rivals Texas and Florida. According to the Tax Foundation, a non-partisan Washington think tank, California (48), New Jersey (49) and New York (50) are the three worst-ranked states from a total tax competitiveness perspective.