Stephen Green comes up with some odd stuff at his continuing Insanity Wrap series for PJ Media, noting the signs of these very strange times. In episode #33, he outlines an interesting strategy for understanding demographic trends, namely the flight from troubled big cities.
Go to the U-Haul website and request quotes for how much to rent a particular trailer or truck from A to B and B to A. If a preponderance of movers are going A to B, it will cost plenty to rent for that direction while renting from B to A will be cheap. This is because U-Haul has to pay their employees to deadhead the empties back to A from B, and buy the fuel too. He gives examples from a Byron York Tweet:
Renting a U-Haul truck from Brooklyn to Chapel Hill NC costs $2603. Chapel Hill to Brooklyn, $492. How about Portland OR to Boise? $1242. Boise to Portland, $91.
U-Haul’s cost accountants know exactly what it costs to get empties back to Portland or Brooklyn, and the price differences reflect that cost. They’ll let you do it for them for pennies on the dollar.
Later ... As regular readers know, we have homes in WY and CA. Just for fun, I checked what a 20' truck would cost to move us from CA to WY - $3000, and from WY to CA - $1100. Both values are approximate. CA Governor Gavin Newsom should worry about this indication of exodus.
