If CA and NY are so horrible why does everyone live there?

One of the kinda cool things about the United States is states’ rights, or what’s left of them. The federal government controls a bunch of stuff, but all 50 states have branches of government that do lots of stuff and set lots of rules, and people like to compare different states to try to learn about the pros and cons of various policies – although due to the complexity of it all, and the inherent geographical differences between a lot of states, it usually just ends up in confirmation bias.

Such was Salon’s accusation of a recent “Koch-funded study” that ranked states based on their level of freedom. They claim that these sorts of libertarian-esque studies tend to deliberately pick factors that will put the red states at the top and the blue states at the bottom. The producers of the study want you to think that the freer states are much better places to live. But Andrew Leonard, the author of the Salon piece, asks a very valid question: if super-liberal states like California, New York, and New Jersey are such horrible places to live, why are they among the country’s highest populations? “Sixty-five million Americans in just three states cower under a totalitarian shadow!” he jests. If these freedom-less societies are really so bad, why don’t they all move?

Well, that’s a good question. I was surprised to learn in a recent Mainstreet compilation of the 10 most taxed states that a great number of millionaires live in high tax states. State #3, Connecticut, has the 4th most millionaires, they claim, and the state actually just decided to raise taxes even more! Hawaii, state #2, is said to have the country’s greatest number of millionaires. Clearly the states know this and levy high taxes to take advantage of their residents. Why aren’t all these millionaires moving to states with lower taxes?

It’s just as interesting if you look at cities. Cities are awesome places to be, especially because of the exponential increase in opportunities. The United States’ largest cities – New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles – are all in decidedly liberal states. Why haven’t supercities popped up in super conservative states like Oklahoma and Kansas? Well, I have three sort of answers, but this is really something that should serve as food for thought for the libertarian mindset: Why don’t more people leave local statist governments if the outcomes are really as bad as we think they are?

Before I get to my guesses, I want to point out that regardless of populations differences, some measurable outcomes really are worse in big-government states. Leonard didn’t address unemployment at all. It’s those boring low-population conservative states that always seem to win that kind of list. Right now North Dakota’s unemployment rate is a ridiculous 3.3%, whereas California is treading 11.9%. (Then again, New York is 7.9%, quite under the national average.) But that really just makes the question even more intense… why do so many more people live in these places if it’s really so bad? (And maybe you could even crunch all the numbers, claim that blue states really aren’t worse than red states, especially if you account for blah blah blah, so I guess liberal states really aren’t so horrible, right? Well, read on….)

1. Some of this is confusing correlation and causation. Kansas doesn’t have any supercities because it’s in the middle of the Midwest; most of the biggest cities are near water – for example – and there are probably other geographical advantages, too. Maybe I have the question backwards: Why did all the big cities/states turn so liberal? I suspect the history is complicated enough to fit a number of theories, such as the independent nature of the rural farmer vs. the dependent nature of inner city-dwellers, or something to do with higher-density locations causing more noticeable problems (pollution, poverty, whatever) that asked for government intervention.

Of course, this all is just an explanation of how the populations and political views became originally lined up. The present question has to do with why they aren’t all shifting away from that if small government ideas are so much better?

2. Well, sometimes the costs of leaving are greater than the costs of staying. Sometimes the relative advantages of a “conservative” state compared to a “liberal” state may not actually be greater than the costs of moving between them (although lowering your gas costs by a dollar per gallon already seems like pretty good savings right from the getgo). Moving out of state can have big costs. You have to give up your local networks with family, friends, and business connections – although you can retain a lot of that to some degree these days thanks to the Internet, and you can always rebuild connections in a new city. But if there are a lot of things you like about your location and the opportunities there, maybe you don’t have an incentive to move, especially if you’re a millionaire who doesn’t miss a few thousand more dollars being skimmed off every year.

There are also simply a lot of upfront physical costs in money and time that those in lower income levels may not be able to afford, even if moving to a new state might help their long-term prospects. It may seem better to take the manageable hardships of a current state over the risk of the unknown in a new state. More importantly, thanks to the current housing crisis with so many mortgages “underwater,” a lot of folks simply can’t move because they owe more money on their current house than they could get if they sold it. And if you believe that government contributed to the housing bubble (as I do) by being a little too eager about “helping” people buy houses, then you can actually blame big government for preventing people from naturally responding to the horrible consequences of big government by moving to smaller government states!

3. Some moving is actually already happening; it just takes awhile. California is quite interesting to watch. Even Leonard noted that their population growth had slowed considerably compared to other parts of the nation. Conservative editorialists like to churn out articles comparing California to Texas with a dose of numbers that prove the latter state is thriving while the former state is dying. Others argue that Texas really isn’t so great either, for such and such reasons, or that they only got lucky smoothing over a deficit with federal funds, but some of California’s numbers seem much harder to explain away. A progressive minimum wage of $9.92 an hour doesn’t do you any good if you can’t find work. Well, unless you have state programs that will support you. Well, unless the state runs out of money.

But even though most states added population in the last decade, the 2010 census shows decided momentum in the direction of conservative states. (Even if you’re a millionaire who doesn’t mind higher taxes – if the state keeps pushing them higher, you might start thinking twice.) California didn’t lose any of its electoral college – this time – but New York lost 2. Texas gained 4. I guess everything else cancelled out because this post claims Obama would have lost 6 electoral votes in the last election with new map. Not a lot, but definitely in the opposite direction of “big government states are awesome and everyone wants to live there.”

I think the next few years will be a good test of such theories. I could only find numbers published before the recent recession, and not from the latest census, but it’s claimed that around 7 million people switch states every year. I hear lots of anecdotes about people and businesses leaving California due to the unfriendly taxes and regulations, and the unemployment rate speaks for itself. Losing businesses that create jobs is even more devastating to a state because it can accelerate the incentives of people to leave.

The TX vs. CA article claims that California lost hundreds of thousands of jobs in the last decade while Texas added an even higher number. Texas is one of the rare high-population states that is dyed-hard red. Ten years from now will it be a shining beacon of freedom and prosperity? Will California be a decrepit, bankrupt state with nobody left to contribute to their revenue? Or will there still be thirty million people living there, including plenty of millionaires, perfectly willing to trade a few degrees of taxes and regulations for nice weather and a caring liberal society that has defied all the conservative predictions of an inevitable meltdown? Maybe the housing crisis will subside and millions of people will finally be able to move out of those horrible states. Or maybe not. Only time will tell.

8 thoughts on “If CA and NY are so horrible why does everyone live there?”

  1. Can I help? I am a Californian who would never live in any other state, although I have lived abroad in Japan for 5 years.

    1) What is it I’m not free to do exactly? I feel extremely free.

    2) Nobody loves taxes, but I don’t feel I’m being taxed unfairly. When I was briefly unemployed after returning to the states, I was really glad for local services that helped me see a doctor and helped my husband continue his education. Happy to pay for a safety net.

    3) There are a lot of job options and companies that are hiring in the San Francisco bay area. Once I found a job, I found a fun, high-paying job, and now my standard of living is quite high.

    4) My husband is not of my race, but I don’t have to worry about snide comments or weird stares. I don’t have to worry about him overhearing people disparage his religion, and the people I meet can find his country on a map. Despite not actually living in SF, it’s easy to find restaurants and food items from his home country. Even before I met him, I was appreciative of, and became addicted to, the diversity in cultures, cuisine, and people I currently enjoy.

    5) The weather, obviously, is great. I visited my uncle in Texas and I mostly felt like I was walking around inside a brick oven. No thank you.

    6) We have amazing local produce and businesses. My routine on Sundays is to go to the farmer’s market and buy fresh fruit, sheep’s cheese, grassfed beef and farm fresh eggs that are all from within 40 miles. Local non-chain stores survive and thrive because people make an effort to patronize them.

    7) People are funny, relaxed, and clever. I like most of the people I meet and enjoy the open, casual atmosphere I feel here. I don’t worry about encountering homophobic, racist, or otherwise intolerant people. I’ve only seen “God Hates Fags” protestors in pictures.

    8) California is packed with amazing, relatively inexpensive state Universities and state schools. It’s not only an incentive to raise kids here for the in-state tuition, but the wealth of educated talent feeds into a network of start-ups and innovative companies.

    All those things matter much more to me than a few extra hundred dollars in the bank, if that would even be the result of a move to a redder state. So yeah, that’s why I would never move to Texas.

    1. Thank you for your comments. Clearly there are lots of benefits (weather, culture, etc) that many people like you are willing to pay for. But to answer a couple points:

      1) What are you not free to do? In the state, eat foie gras. In San Francisco, get a “free” happy meal toy. In LA, use plastic bags, or use frisbees and footballs on the beach. Just to name a few from the last two years. And with NYC’s ban on 32 oz. sodas and a New Jersey town’s fine on texting and walking, blue states feel like nannies to me, and I would always be wondering what bans they were going to pass next – that’s the main reason I personally would not want to live there.

      2) I’m glad you found a job in San Francisco, where the current unemployment rate of 7.4% is lower than the national average of 8.3%. Across the state of California, though, the rate is 10.7%, third-highest in the nation.

      1. California was hit hard during the subprime mortgage crisis because the real estate market is highly interconnected with California’s economy. Even though California has a fairly high unemployment rate, we still pay the most tax dollars, yet we only get back like ~$0.80 per dollar. Conservative states that get every dollar or more of their taxes paid to the Federal government back. If the Federal government gave California $1 for every $1 we pay in taxes back into the state, trust me California will recover.

  2. So you won’t live in CA because you
    can’t get a happy meal toy? I agree with the previous poster and will keep paying for a safety net instead thanks. Perspective fail.

    1. It’s not specifically about the happy meal toy, but people that will meddle in happy meal toys “for my own good” are likely to meddle in other things – like the four others I listed. These are the kinds of busybodies who supposedly care about the poor but will ban feeding the homeless if they can’t regulate the food supply.

      I’m paying for a safety net, too. You’re not just paying for a bigger one; you’re paying for big public pensions, too. Three California cities have declared bankruptcy this year, and they won’t be the last.

  3. Can I help? This post is a counter-balance to KA, who sounds as though they are wearing rose colored glasses and have stars in their eyes in regards to their beloved liberal haven. I am a California native—I was born in California and lived there for almost 30 years, before I decided I have enough and relocated entirely. Here are my counterpoints:

    1) Freedom? I didn’t exactly feel free, what I did experience was an increase in the cost of living and a restriction in the freedom of living in minute ways over the years. For example, the recent shooting that happened in Aurora, Colorado–after this occurred, I went to see a movie with my family. At the theatre they insisted on searching my purse before they let me in, and told me it was because of Aurora. While I’m no gun nut, I also can’t see the point of the neighborhoods that brag “Gun free and drug free zone”. I mean, what good does that actually do? Like that sign will keep the criminals out. Note–these where some of the most ghetto neighborhoods that Sacramento had to offer, so obviously the “sign” wasn’t doing its job. And don’t even get me started about the rising tuition rates, the parking tickets, the parking fees, the lack of parking, the uncooperative government organizations……all of it. It culminated in a big picture of bureaucracy I didn’t much like.

    2) Taxes? There are plenty. PLENTY. And they are everywhere. My spouse had a government job, and that was supposed to be the end all be all for us—a ladder to climb to success. No such luck. After working at that state job in California for almost a decade, my spouse made…….wait for it…….a whopping $27,000 net a year. This is considered low even by non-California standards. Also, the flier that led him to this job stated that within five years of starting, the employee would top out at a respectable $48,000 a year. So why didn’t this happen? Well, year after year there was the California “budget crisis”, you see, so not only could they not afford to make good on their promise and pay the employee the advancement they’d earned, they often didn’t provide for cost of living increases, even though these are supposed to be mandated by law. The hours and physical labor required by the job increased, as well. Even though the salary was $36,000 gross a year, it was taxed so heavily that we lost about 30% of the paycheck in the transition from gross to net. And, fun fact…..this is about the same amount a single parent collects on welfare every month. So it’s nice to see that someone can work for a living and basically pay for the living expenses for one other individual deadbeat living in this state.
    Let’s also not forget the notorious DMV tax. As though the registration fee wasn’t high enough in California (and difficult enough to get waiting in line for a few hours), Governor Gray Davis decided to increase the car registration by 300% around 2006. Gotta love it.

    3) Jobs? No. Specifically—you don’t get a job in this state because of your skill; you get it because of who you know, and how well you can kiss their ass. Someone I know personally in California had a job created for them at the CA State Capitol for $85,000 a year with full benefits….literally just created for them out of thin air. They had some work experience, but nothing else going for them (except knowing the right person at the right time). I (and some of my friends) had—military experience, work experience, college degrees, IT certifications, our youth and our health……what were we able to find? Nothing. I went on an intensive job search in 2009 and threw the net wide. I could not even find a job cleaning toilets or flipping burgers. They were just not there. It was the catalyst that finally drove me to leave this state.

    4) I will give California props for diversity, because there are a lot of everyone here—a lot of races, a lot of religions, and a lot of cuisines. But I would offer a caveat—if you are straight, white, male, Christian, or even military; any of these “traditional” values could easily get you in hot water in some of these liberal environments. I am a white person, and I was consistently put down by blacks while I was growing up. I am also a straight Christian and attended university in California; I heard my religion slammed more than once. I also noticed several “embrace diversity” movements on campus, celebrating homosexuality/LGBT, celebrating Islam……what they never could do was offer Christian prayer groups or anything resembling that. It might “offend” someone.

    5) The weather is pretty good. I’ll give you that. The one thing California has going for it is scenery. Temperate climates, great geography (beaches and mountains), and this is the one thing I’m truly sad to leave behind.

    6) While there are some very valuable and kind people in California, I’ve also encountered my fair share of jerks. Since I’ve been living in a more conservative state, I’ve commented to my spouse on more than one occasion that the ratio of jerks to nice people has really dwindled here. In California, it seemed to be about a 60/40 percent split. Here it’s about 95% nice people, the other percentage jerks or just odd. But overall, the people here are so much more considerate and willing to help each other out.

    7) The university I attended in California was one of the worst experiences I ever had, and I won’t forget it. I used my G.I. Bill to try and better myself after I got out of the military. I maintained a 4.0 at community college and felt ready/motivated to go to university. After two years of dealing with California State University, I left with significantly less than I started with. I had half a major completed, was not able to get into classes I needed to graduate (the CSU was impacted in 2009), my health had deteriorated due to stress, and most of my G.I. Bill was gone. To add insult to injury, after this herculean effort I put forth, a faculty member was recommending I change majors, insisting I was not smart enough to pursue the current course of study. Parking and dealing with ALL university services at this college was a nightmare; I won’t go into great detail, but I will leave you with these gems to demonstrate I’m not just making it up:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/20/education/20tuition.html?_r=0
    http://www.statehornet.com/news/engineering-whistleblower-lawsuit-set-to-begin-trial/article_3c16c39e-77bc-11e3-85b9-001a4bcf6878.html
    http://thecampusculture.com/2013/05/15/lawsuits-and-complaints-rampant-among-sac-state-administration/
    http://www.lawfirmnewswire.com/2014/02/alleged-california-state-university-sexual-harrassment-lawsuit-set-for-court-late-2014-indicates-respected-sacramento-attorney-deborah-barron/
    http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/Finances-bleeding-Cal-State-system-dry-3965585.php
    http://www.crcconnection.com/news/colleges-prepare-for-impacted-classes-1.2105103#.U4asAmdOX3g

    The bureaucracy of California drove me away, and I now live in a neutral to borderline red state. I am also actively pursuing job opportunities in Texas, because I have a friend there who’s encouraging me to come, and he insists it’s one of the best places he’s ever lived.

    How did my story turn out? I predicted that if my family uprooted ourselves from California and moved to our current state, we would start to thrive. I was correct. While it was not always easy, I established myself in a university here, where I not only (finally) got that undergraduate degree, but have started to pursue a graduate degree, fully funded by the state. We live in a safe neighborhood with a view of the mountains, and our children go to good schools. We don’t get taxed heavily, gas is affordable, insurance is affordable, and when I seek out a government service here—such as a certification—I don’t call and wait on hold for hours or place emails/mail letters and then get ignored for months to years. I’m able to just get stuff to happen here. We make at least as much now if not more than we used to. And yes, I’ve finally been offered that high government position I was seeking. It turns out people here (unlike California) really do give a shit if you have work ethic, if you’re educated and motivated, if you’ve served in the military.

    If that doesn’t sound inspiring, by all means, stay in California. We don’t need you here.

Comments are closed.