The Wall Street Journal runs an editorial on what they call “The Great Blue to Red State Migration.” A key section focuses on the catch-22 nature of illegal immigration going to where the freebies are surest:
If not for foreign immigration, population declines last year would have been far greater in California, New York, Illinois and Oregon. Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Washington also would have lost population. Immigrants are an economic asset, but expansive welfare states have made them a burden for these states.
A big problem for Democratic-run states is that their affluent residents are leading the exodus, and they pay the majority of income tax that supports their expansive welfare programs. This is a major reason California’s tax revenue over the last five months has come in $24.5 billion below projections despite a rebounding stock market.
No good deed goes unpunished. “Affluent residents” didn’t get that way by being dumb about money, or taxes. Watch them migrate to places which let them keep more of their earnings. Places that spend less coddling the insane, the unemployable, and the addicted.
