California in the rear-view mirror

California residents continue to vote with their feet. From this NYT article in May,

For the second time in two years, the California Department of Finance has reported a drop in the state’s population.

California lost 117,552 residents last year, driven largely by the Covid death toll and a sharp drop in foreign immigration. This followed a slightly bigger decline in 2020, when the state lost 182,083 residents — the first time in more than a century that California got smaller.

The latest data is further evidence that California, whose identity has been tied to expansive growth going back to the Gold Rush days, is now a state of stagnant growth. That has already resulted in the state losing a congressional seat for the first time in its 170-year history.

This City Journal article found that since 2000, California saw a net loss of over 2.6 million people. Many of those are taxpayers.

The comforting tale that only the old, bitter, and uneducated are moving out simply does not withstand scrutiny. An analysis of IRS data through 2019 confirms that increasing domestic migration is not dominated by the youngest or oldest households. Between 2012 and 2019, tax filers under 26 years old constituted only 4 percent of net domestic outmigrants. About 77 percent of the increase came among those in their prime earning years of 35 to 64. In 2019, 27 percent of net domestic migrants were aged 35 to 44, while 21 percent were aged 55 to 64.

As an unscientific experiment, I looked up U-Haul rates for a 10′ truck, picking up on September 6, both leaving and going to California, with Texas and Florida as the other ends of the trip.

from Los Angeles, California…

Los Angeles to Dallas – $2,701
Los Angeles to Miami – $4,416

to Los Angeles, California…

Dallas to Los Angeles – $1,296
Miami to Los Angeles – $2,760


from San Francisco, California…

San Francisco to Dallas – $3,350
San Francisco to Miami – $4,902

to San Francisco, California…

Dallas to San Francisco – $1,462
Miami to San Francisco – $3,065


It’s 60-100% more expensive leaving California than going to California. What might that say about demand in California and which direction trucks are going, and where they’re staying?

The tech and entertainment industries can survive longer because so many of their dollars come from outside the state, but as crime and lawlessness and leftist policies drive out more and more people, eventually the California tax base won’t support the status quo. Then we can sit back with some popcorn and watch the fireworks.

14 thoughts on “California in the rear-view mirror

  1. What is weird about California Dems is that they truly believe that every other state thinks California is the greatest state to live in and the Americans living elsewhere really would like their state to be run by California Democrats.

  2. California really hasn’t lost population; it’s lost “US Citizens”. LA is literally North Tijuana and Spanish is spoken on par with English everywhere South and West of Sacramento. The brain damaged, degenerate population likes to crow they are “the 5th largest economy in the world”. That’s good, because they’re going to be feeding 50% of South America within the next 20 years.

    We like to joke about building a wall from Mexico North along the West coast to Canada, but given the success of the invasion, that isn’t out of the question.

  3. For California’s sake, I hope this trend continues. California’s population doubled from 20 to 40 million from 1970 to 2020, with the vast majority of that growth in coastal areas that are now overpriced, overpopulated and unsustainable in terms of natural resources and the effect on the environment.

    It would be great to see more economic, job and population growth in other areas of the country that are less crowded, more affordable, and more equipped to sustain more people.

  4. texas governor should send busses to wisconsin lake country plenty of room for illegals there

  5. Texas is a state that ranks near the bottom in healthcare, education, industrial pollution and many other key indices and ranks near the top In laughably ignorant, corrupt politicians.. Dallas, with its rapidly increasing urban sprawl and rising housing rates, is turning into Los Angeles without the natural beauty, nationally-ranked university and movie industry.

  6. Hopefully, the banning of infanticide will keep migration of leftist degenerates fleeing the 3rd world shitholes they’ve made of their home states restricted to emerging 3rd world shitholes, like Minneapolis.

    I’m looking forward to the prosecution of the first Dr. Mengele that violates the strict prohibition of infanticide in South Carolina. We will make an example of xer that will not soon be forgotten.

  7. Can you spell CA is a banana republic? Sure you can!

    Though the county rejected less than 1% of mail-in ballots in the 2020 election, Los Angeles County officials said they found that nearly 30% of signatures on petitions to recall the unpopular district attorney were invalid or could not count. (snip) The petition fell short by 46,807 signatures — a margin that would have been covered by the sum of signatures rejected because of an address mismatch (32,187), because of a signature mismatch (9,490), and because of “other” reasons (5,374).

    Throughout the process of signature validation, proponents of the recall complained that they were not permitted to observe the count. The county said observers would not be allowed because signature verification did not quality as an “election.”

    No fraud here… no sireebob! My assertion that the more people leave, the more insane, fruitier and nuttier, with less possibility to change, CA becomes is proving true every single day. The notion that people will have enough and will vote bums out is a fantasy. And same goes for MN. Leave while you still have a chance and don’t have to scale a border wall.

  8. Get the salts! Swift has the vapors again.
    You may want to consider cutting back on the ether binges.

    “The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge.” ~ Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

  9. jpa, in short order, CA will be a land of ultra-wealthy Oligarchs, grifting leftist politicians, murderous Latino and Negro street gangs and 75IQ GuataMexiDorian gardeners.

    The Oligarchs are already safe with their armed close personal protective teams, behind miles of exclusive and heavily patrolled estates and gated communities.

    When was the last time Mark Zuck or Nancy Pelosi popped out for some street tacos, do you think?

  10. I think it ends when there aren’t enough top tech people in the Bay and LA to support the tax base, and then it collapses quickly.

  11. I think it ends when there aren’t enough top tech people in the Bay and LA to support the tax base, and then it collapses quickly.

    And then Pelosi will be glad she built a wall around her property in Napa Valley.

  12. “And then Pelosi will be glad she built a wall around her property in Napa Valley.”

    Yeah, well that will work until her husband comes home drunk, from a night with 13 yr old hookers and goes through it in his Porche.

  13. Night and Blade;
    The Piglosis won’t be staying in Californication. Even they bought a multi million dollar mansion on the Florida coast. Even they know DemoCommie policies are for shit. She’s still in it to pad the bank account via her insider trading. She brought her crooked son with her to Taiwan, on our dime, so that he could meet with some Taiwanese business men.
    When she got into office, her net worth was around $3 million. Today, she’s worth $252 million, with a taxpayer funded gubmint salary of $223,000 per year, plus a Lexus healthcare plan for life, as well as a big ass pension. Let’s see if they get audited.

  14. BH, its a tossup which vehicle tags I hate to see in my state worse: CA or NJ.

    NY has many fine people outside the NYC metro, but NJ is jagoffs all the way through, and The decent people in CA all live in lightly populated areas ip North and ignore the degenerates; they’re staying.

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