The new issue of National Review has a cover story on the exodus of Californians, with a cover painting of a caravan of vehicles towing thinly-disguised U-Haul trailers pictured on fabled coastal Highway 1. As a native who finally shed my last CA foothold and joined the exodus, I find it particularly relevant.
California is a mess economically, fiscally, socially, educationally, and culturally, but in each category there exist sufficient can-kicking options, or at least prima facie “spin” opportunities, to soften the realities of what is taking place in the Golden State. But there is one basic, objective reality that is impossible to spin away — people are leaving in droves.
What caused and continues to cause the exodus out of California is not tax burden, or regulation, or cost of living, or housing prices. Rather, it is the burden, and regulation, and cost of living, and housing prices, and more.
The “more” includes failing public schools, homeless tent cities, and D.A.s who won’t prosecute theft or public defecation.
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California - the physical place - is about as close to perfection as exists anywhere. California - the one-party leftist state - is a mess that just keeps getting messier.
Eventually what bad people have done to CA overwhelms how great it was before they destroyed it, the tipping point being different for different people. As more people who have good values leave, the situation in CA grows progressively worse. It is all very sad, and not obviously reversible.
