Go East, Young Man? Californians Look for the Exit
January 13th, 2009Is it Atlas Shrugged, but with the exodus coming from the middle tiers, rather than the top?
I’m really starting to wonder. So many people are just saying, “F*ck it,” refusing the play along anymore. In general, rich people are out of touch with the reality on the ground, and poor people are trapped. Both classes lack options, the rich because of cognitive dissonance and the poor because of lack of capital. The trend of middle class people, voluntarily (or, involuntarily) taking themselves down several notches, could spell big, BIG trouble for the vampire state. I suppose we’ll know that critical mass occurred when/if a Soviet state like California goes down.
Via: AP:
Mike Reilly spent his lifetime chasing the California dream. This year he’s going to look for it in Colorado.
With a house purchase near Denver in the works, the 38-year-old engineering contractor plans to move his family 1,200 miles away from his home state’s lemon groves, sunshine and beaches. For him, years of rising taxes, dead-end schools, unchecked illegal immigration and clogged traffic have robbed the Golden State of its allure.
Is there something left of the California dream?
“If you are a Hollywood actor,” Reilly says, “but not for us.”
…
Why are so many looking for an exit?
Among other things: California’s unemployment rate hit 8.4 percent in November, the third-highest in the nation, and it is expected to get worse. A record 236,000 foreclosures are projected for 2008, more than the prior nine years combined, according to research firm MDA DataQuick. Personal income was about flat last year.
With state government facing a $41.6 billion budget hole over 18 months, residents are bracing for higher taxes, cuts in education and postponed tax rebates. A multibillion-dollar plan to remake downtown Los Angeles has stalled, and office vacancy rates there and in San Diego and San Jose surpass the 10.2 percent national average.
Median housing prices have nose-dived one-third from a 2006 peak, but many homes are still out of reach for middle-class families. Some small towns are on the brink of bankruptcy. Normally recession-proof Hollywood has been hit by layoffs.
“You see wages go down and the cost of living go up,” Reilly says.
Thanks for bringing this up. A friend and I were discussing a ‘reverse depression’ migration to Oklahoma and Missouri. Having a two yr contract job in coastal S. Cal, it is very mysterious what everyone else is doing for a living to afford the rents when so many visible jobs are retail and service. Just scan craigslist prices http://losangeles.craigslist.org/apa A parent+child searching for a 1bedroom would be very lucky to find anything with a 3X rent-income requirement. If a job is lost, the cheaper central Valley is in bad shape, so you need to move far away.
quintanus,
That’s the first thing I though while reading this piece, that we may be in the beginnings of a reversal of the ’30’s dust-bowl migration: people fleeing the economic “desolation” of the coastal regions and cities in general, seeking good land & good quality of life, and the benefits to be had by small-scale, local economy (ie, barter, shared labor, “know your farmer” food security, etc.).
If a person can’t swing a Farmlet-style bug-out, then I think you have to think along the lines of: what jobs are still viable out in the hinterlands? Medical, law enforcement, repair work, and education are a few that come to mind. Education is where I’m heading; I’m only a few credit hours from a teaching certification. Then…. head out to the Black Belt region of Alabama, which I love, and where folks still know how to grow things and build things on their own.