Go West, young Lefty. Just not to California, no matter how aching your heart is*.

This is a serious suggestion: if you’re a young liberal looking to get ahead, sure, move to the Pacific coast.  Just avoid California like the plague.

usmoneymigrate

Travis H. Brown, author of How Money Walks, points to IRS figures that track the flow of wealth from some states and to others. From 1992 -2010, California was a net loser of $45.27 billion in adjusted gross income. $6.02 billion of that went to Texas. Texas, on the other hand, gained $24.94 billion in AGI during those years, with California the top source for transfers.

Sure, I know, that map is telling you that it’s probably smarter to move to Texas, the Sunbelt, or the lower Atlantic.  But this is advice for liberals, remember?  And the advice is saying: move to Washington State.  California is hemorrhaging wealth like nobody’s business; it’ll probably be a while before the Left can do the same to Washington and Oregon.

Moe Lane

PS: Yes, I know: this advice, if taken, will negatively impact my Washington state and Oregon readers.  Sorry, folks, but I think that the American productive class has already internalized this advice anyway.

*Classical reference.

12 thoughts on “Go West, young Lefty. Just not to California, no matter how aching your heart is*.”

  2. WA has no income tax. OR has no sales tax. (NV also doesn’t have income tax IIRC).
    .
    Boy, will ya look at all those states around Cali and their much less tax burden somehow gaining wealth??? And Cali with their anti-business and anti-people policies to go with the high tax on everything losing so much.
    .
    You’d think there would be a lesson in there….

    1. Considering relocating out that way myself, so I’ve been doing some homework.

      It’s worth noting that, once you’re outside of Portland or Seattle, OR and WA tend to be rather .. red. Purple, at least .. and fewer christo-statists not clear on the concept of “fusionism” to deal with.
      .
      Also, OR and WA liberals (not progressives) seem to have a more independent-thinking (one might be tempted to say “libertarian”) streak. Not that they aren’t happy to support the latest big-government fiascoes… CoverOregon comes to mind .. but there’s opportunities there.
      .
      While the relocation to OR or WA is shorter for Californians fleeing, neither State is – in terms of job creation – that large.. the jobs just aren’t going there.
      .
      Texas is much more appealing to former Californians for that reason… which is good for me because Colorado shows what an influx of Californians does to an otherwise nice State.
      .
      Mew

      1. We lived in Corvallis, OR for 5 years. Eugene and Portland are the very liberal areas. Corvallis was liberal in the “college town” sense, but most of the surrounding areas are red as can be. My parents live in Grants Pass (southern OR) and the entire area south of Eugene is pretty red. I couldn’t take the climate – 6 months of grey clouds with light drizzle and no-sun seeing drove me nuts (the summers are absolutely awesome though).
        .
        If you are going to move to the area, I would say to live in Vancouver, WA (just across the river from Portland). It’s a fairly red city, no income tax on the WA side and you can possibly* shop in Oregon and not pay sales tax.
        .
        *If you do, be sure to report all that to WA and pay your sales taxes to them….

        1. Thank you for the confirmation, Darin_H – I read and research but until paws are on the ground, it’s hard to tell.
          .
          Vancouver area is a possibility, don’t know enough about the outskirts to make an informed decision .. yet.
          .
          Mew

          2. What do you want to know? I’m in Idaho, so I know a bit first-hand, and have a few contacts I can pump for info.
            .
            Most of Oregon and Washington are red as red can be. But something like 80% of the population lives in the Portland-Salem corridor (Oregon) or the Puget Sound area (Washington). Both of those are dark blue, and since the Supreme Court (in its “wisdom”) demanded that all state legislative seats be apportioned by population… Those large swathes of red are governed at the state level by lefties who openly hate the provincials and their interests.

          3. The issue with living in Vancouver is that you would have to earn your living in Washington state in order to take advantage of Washington’s lack of income tax. If you lived in Vancouver and worked in Oregon, you’d have to pay Oregon state income tax.
            .
            Yeah, that sucks.

      2. I grew up in Seattle, and can tell you that that almost-libertarian cant is merely vestigial, at best an instinctual reflex; a leftover from how things were 25+, even 15 years ago (when I last lived in that area). Previous generations of libo-Californians bringing their progressive ideas along have poisoned politics there, and they’ve changed the process to ensure their supremacy with “non-partisan” jungle primaries and the like (no mistake a Socialist is on the city council). Western Washington is already gone the way of California; it’s all over except for the crying (and business/job loss, crime, &c.). I give it 10 years at most.

        1. For example: They renamed King County (Seattle, Bellevue, Renton Mercer Island, and such) for Martin Luther King from Vice President William R. King. How useless is that, other than covering yourself in self-righteousness? Seattle was nearly as far away from that problem in distance and attitude as you could get.

          Pierce County (Tacoma and environs) was named after President Franklin Pierce, mostly because it was designated the railroad terminus over Seattle. Long story, but rent-seeking a large part of it.

  4. I am somewhat confused by Moe’s advice. If I had my druthers, ALL the young liberals [Leftists] would be sent to California. Let them be there when it implodes and the Gods of the Copybook Headings have their due. New fodder to be taxed and oppressed by the welfare state. Some fraction of those who survive may have their reality testing improved; rather than having them becoming Obama fan-bois in America.

    I admit that I was looking at two areas of Washington to retire to. One was Vancouver, Washington and the tax situation as described was a big draw. The other was Port Angeles on the north shore of the Olympic Peninsula. Almost as good as Vancouver Island BC, or Vancouver City, BC depending if I decided urban or rural. Life ended up making it so that staying in Colorado was the thing to do, but that experience makes me want to send all the Californians back to California, and any new, starry-eyed Leftist recruits from around the country. Give them what they want, good and hard.

Comments are closed.