Why Millions Are Now Leaving California and NY — for TX, FL, AZ
People are fleeing blue cities for red states
Remember when Elon Musk was the left’s savior? He was the "real-life Tony Stark.” The cartoon hero they wished to exist in real life.
Then covid happened...
Musk criticized California's COVID rules.
He didn't want to have his company produce ventilators (which killed millions) and moved Tesla headquarters out from the Holyland of California to the demonic hell of Conservative Texas.
I’ve been living in Texas for a few weeks now.
I came straight from Bitcoin Nashville.
I have to say, this state is growing on me and you can see the obvious appeal compared to a place like New York or California.
Elon and Joe Rogan set a precedent for moving from blue cities to red states and now 700,000 people have left California in the last two years and it showed when everyone I met from Oklahoma City to Vegas to Dallas to Miami was escaping L.A. and New York.
Here’s why that makes sense.
The New American Dream
From 2010 to 2020, the fastest-growing states were mainly red and that trend only sped up during the pandemic.
Why is this happening? It’s simple: They are pro-business. That’s according to a recent study by Mark J. Perry for the American Enterprise Institute. Perry compared the top 10 states people were moving to in 2021 with the top 10 states people were leaving.
Lower income taxes and unemployment, friendlier business laws, cheaper homes and utility costs were among the top reasons for moving to red states.
Red states were also the first to end COVID-19 lockdowns, enabling more economic freedom and laissez-faire capitalism.
Am I shilling for Texas now? No. I like the state. I like a big plate of beef bbq brisket served next to freedom. But there are two trends to consider.
First is work. According to a recent Microsoft study, 43% of employees are poised to quit their jobs, not for better pay or benefits but in search of less oppressive workloads in rural areas, not cities.
The 9-5 rat race slavery is real, and everyone is getting tired of it.
Here are some trends causing that:
Weekly Teams meetings broke records with 252% increases
An average worker clocked 28% more time off the clock
And roughly 47 million people quit their jobs in 2021
Modernity is location-independent — rejecting the city hustle and bustle for autonomy. What does bustle mean, anyway? That’s not a word.
But the bigger story everyone is missing is that Americans aren’t just leaving New York City and L.A. — they’re leaving all big cities behind for the most part. Miami, New Orleans and Seattle all lost more people than they gained between 2021–22.
Yes, Americans are flooding Florida, Texas, and Arizona like a bizzaro “Grapes of Wrath,” BUT they’re also avoiding metropolitan areas in favor of less crowded and affordable suburbs, where they can forge a new kind of lifestyle that blends telework and remote living.
The economic and political implications of this are fascinating: we’re seeing a purple Texas (which pisses them off), a purple Georgia, and money flowing out of major cities like San Francisco and New York.
It’s a new Gold Rush.
Will Cali and New York City Bounce Back?
No. California is my favorite state in the union with its raw beauty and New York City is the financial and creative mecca of the world.
Both are a bad deal.
California has the highest tax rate of any other state. Locals are robbed at the gas pump, at the grocery store, by their kids who are addicted to fentanyl — and homelessness is an epidemic.
I saw a homeless man near Skid Row with both legs amputated and living in a shopping cart. He had a sign that said, “Will work for love.”
New York City is a similar-ish lousy deal.
We don’t have a Skid Row but globalization has New York, like all other big cities, by the throat. Rent prices in Manhattan and Brooklyn have tripled since 2000. This part of New York City is dying, not due to grime or seediness, but rather the contrary; new money and luxury are killing it.
A place that once existed as a hotbed of diverse cultures is now a LARPING ground for the unwanted dilettante children of the millionaire class.
Final Thought
I blame the ability of companies to own homes as the main reason for the shitshow we’re in. Too big to fail or jail companies like Blackstone, BlackRock, Zillow — all have robbed families of the American dream.
Can you boil the influx of movers down to Red vs. Blue politics?
Yup, I just did.
As polarization continues, moving from state to state will be very common.
Abortion will send leftists one way, and crime and homelessness push rightists another. Guns and myriad other issues will be reasons to stay or move.
But as I see it — it’s oligarchical elites vs. everyone.
The fight rages on.
Good luck out there.
Great take, as always. I'll add a few suggestions. First, at least where Texas is concerned, the studies suggest that those migrating from other states are more conservative, not more liberal, and that the state is becoming more red, not more purple. There was exit polling a few years back from the Ted Cruz vs. Beto O'Rourke race. Recent migrants favored Cruz by a significant margin over O'Rourke, while natives actually favored O'Rourke. Similarly, native Texans favored Biden in the last election, while migrants from other states favored Trump. Some of this data is cited here: https://www.texaspolicy.com/new-poll-finds-all-those-people-moving-to-texas-arent-going-to-be-voting-for-democrats/
On the issue of people settling in rural areas, I think that's a trend we're going to see everywhere. One big factor, in my opinion: Starlink. The availability of fast, reasonably-priced internet is a big deal. As a recent migrant to a rural Texas city myself (just outside Austin), I had one internet option three years ago. It was terrible. (I'm looking at you, Optimum). Connections regularly dropped over the first year. Then, Starlink became available last year. I switched immediately. I've had Starlink in Costa Rica and another location for the past few years, so I already knew it was nearly flawless. As Starlink becomes available in more places, it removes one more obstacle to choosing a rural area over an urban area.
Anyway, thanks for sharing your thoughts, and welcome to Texas. I've heard you're settling in Denver. If that's not solidified, you may want to give Texas a shot. No regrets since I moved from Seattle -- I don't even mind the Texas-sized bugs.
“Too big to fail,” says it all. We went into a black hole in 2007/08, and never came out. We are living in the matrix, full of magical thinking and cognitive dissonance. Who ever thought a reality TV host could solve the problems of the world? LOL!