Saturday, July 11, 2009

California: Coming or Going?

A number of papers, including our very own Times- Standard, either featured or commented on this Associated Press story this morning on migration in California. It was featured on page A2 of today's Times- Standard. Calbuzz commented on it, as did one of the Santa Rosa Press- Democrat pundits.

The gist of the story and commentary seems to be that, since more poor people are leaving California than rich people, it's a myth that the rich aren't really unhappy with either California or its high income taxes. What I think they're missing is that there are still more people- rich and poor- leaving California than staying here and even poor people pay some taxes.

Addendum: As an aside, the Calbuzz comments function seems to be a little off. At the bottom of the article it shows that there aren't any comments on the article. When I log in, I see mine there.

5 Comments:

At 1:53 PM, Anonymous Chris Crawford said...

What I found amusing is that the poor are leaving CA at a higher rate than the rich, but they are both leaving.

The AP put a spin on the story making it sound as if the rich were NOT leaving. The source of the story, PPIC.org, is a credible CA research organization.

 
At 3:07 PM, Blogger Fred Mangels said...

Yep, that's was the gist of my comment on both the calbuzz and SRPD web sites.

I agree they seemed to be using the poor people leaving to nullify the point of rich people leaving, but I don't think it works.

It does leave the question I have unanswered, though. We always hear people and businesses are leaving, but you don't often hear specifics. I suppose it would be hard to compile the info, but I'd like to see a list of brick and mortar businesses (heck, even cyber businesses) that have actually moved elsewhere. And, for that matter, which ones have moved here (if any).

I've run into a few people here and there that have left the state over the last few years. Most thought California was screwed up and wanted to leave but never gave specifics of what they thought was screwed up. Most of the ones I know were retired, too.

 
At 7:21 AM, Anonymous Humboldt Heretic said...

The reasons for people and businesses fleeing California are not all due to the income tax.
The ongoing hassels caused by the greenie and prog controlled regulatory bureaucracies as described here are often the deciding factor.

 
At 8:45 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Let the businesses who don't want to participate in a green economy leave. California will be better off without them.

California will also be a better place to live with a few less rich people too.

 
At 12:27 PM, Anonymous Mr. Nice said...

Many people came to California in search of gold and/or cheap land formerly owned by Mexicans. There is still plenty of gold (cannabis) in California as well as cheap land (foreclosed homes formerly owned by whites). The only difference between now and 150 years ago is that guns are pretty much illegal with more bandits that need to be shot at.

Myself, I could never leave the land of the Golden Pear. I only hope someday our Republic secedes from the US and establishes better ties with Mexico.

 

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