As regular COTTonLINE readers know, one of the story lines we follow is the slow, seemingly inexorable decline of our native state - California. RealClearMarkets runs a piece on out-migration from California, people voting with their feet - voting "No."
Author Carson Bruno notes that if you segment Californians by income level into five quintiles, there is out-migration in four of the five. Only among the upper-middle or fourth quintile is there net in-migration.
Housing, taxes, and energy costs are extremely high throughout CA, whereas only the Silicon Valley is truly booming. As the article notes, the Information Age's "company town" is a slender reed upon which to build a whole state's economy.
Ironically, ask the average Californian stuck in a freeway traffic jam about out-migration and s/he probably thinks it isn't happening fast enough.
