No, it’s not what you think.  This piece is not about States that provide life-ending drugs to people who have decided to end their lives.  That’s bad enough.  The subject of this offering is the increasing tendency of Blue States to pursue policies that are causing millions of their citizens to flee to States which offer them a better quality of life.  These State policies are self-inflicted wounds that are driving productive residents away, and pushing the States closer to bankruptcy.

The massive population shift away from Blue States truly has been amazing.  Since 2020, a flood of Blue State residents from States like California, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Illinois have migrated to other States, principally, Texas, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona, and Nevada.  California leads the way in resident flight, with more than 1.3 million escapees since 2020.  New York has lost nearly 500,000, and the other States mentioned above smaller, yet significant, numbers of people.

And it’s not just residents who are fleeing.  Businesses are going elsewhere as well.  California has lost Chevron, Tesla, SpaceX, Oracle, and Hewlett Packard, to name just a few.  Many companies have relocated to Texas, notably from Wall Street.  Goldman Sachs has expanded operations in Texas, and J.P. Morgan now has more employees in Texas than in New York.  When companies and jobs are exported from a State, State revenues drop.  For instance, Wall Street employees pay half of the taxes collected by New York City.

In round numbers, the Blue State exodus has relocated more than 4 million people in the past 5 years alone.  Why are they leaving?  Remember that list of the  States most people are escaping from?  The one thing California, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Illinois have in common is that they are, by far, the most Left leaning States, led by the most rabid of the kooks who like to call themselves progressives.

The reasons for the relocations can be summed up in three words.  Safety, money, and freedom.  You know how people say that Democrats are on the wrong side of so many 80-20 issues?  One of those issues is public safety.  The Blue States have a nasty habit of coddling criminals and persecuting law enforcement.

Chicago is a war zone, where you’re much more likely to be killed than in the war with Iran.  Chicago’s Mayor, and Illinois’ Governor are unconcerned.  To hear them tell it, everything is just fine.  In New York, the DA’s won’t even prosecute people who assault police officers, preferring to prosecute the cops instead.  Businesses are closing because the City permits unrestrained shoplifting, without consequences.  CVS is shutting 5 pharmacies in the City.  Community Activists, a/k/a rabble rousers, have denounced the company, accusing it of “a first degree social crime” for abandoning their neighborhoods. Mayor Commie Mamdani sees no problem there.  Is it any wonder people are getting out?

The safety issue includes Democrats’ continued resistance to the deportation of illegal immigrants, which has caused them to support the illegals to the detriment of their own citizens who elected them, and who are financing their nonsense.  People write the immigration issue off as merely an anti-Trump reaction, but it’s more than that.

Not so long ago, even Democrats opposed illegal immigration.  In 1996, Bill Clinton said, “We oppose welfare for illegals.”  Notice he called them “illegals.”  Clearly, this was before the Democrats decided that, “No one is illegal.”  In 2006, Senators Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer, Joe Biden, Il Duce Obama, and 23 other Democrats, voted to build a wall on the Southern border.  Around this time, Biden said, “No great nation can have uncontrolled borders.”

Clearly something changed, and it changed long before Donald Trump came down the escalator.  Actually, it was two things that changed.  Democrats came to the realization that they needed to expand their base with new potential voters.  Luckily, there was a vast supply of needy, would-be immigrants nearby, so voter replacement began.  At the same time, the crazy Socialists gained more power in the Democrat Party, and now control it.  The Clintons, Obama, Biden, and Schumer didn’t suddenly change their minds about immigration.  Their Party changed, and being political hucksters, they just followed along.

Flight for freedom began during the Wuhan virus pandemic.  Blue States closed down schools, businesses and churches, pushed for “vaccine passports,” and generally stifled personal freedoms, all in the name of totally made up 6 foot distancing, and a vaccine that really didn’t work.

But by far the biggest impetus for flight from the Blue States is their tax policies.  The people who flee due to ruinous taxes, unsurprisingly are the most productive and prosperous citizens.  The ones who are paying the bulk of the taxes.  The Blue States largely have replaced these productive people with needy illegal aliens, who they insist must be counted in the census.

Not coincidentally, the States from which people are fleeing are also the States with the highest State and local tax rates.  California’s top rate is 14.4%, and that’s on top of the federal 37% top rate, meaning more than half the income of its top earning residents goes to income tax alone.  New Jersey isn’t much better, with a top rate of 10.75%.  Add to this the highest property taxes, the sales tax, and the gasoline, and other taxes, and Texas and Florida keep looking better and better.

Yet despite these confiscatory tax rates, Democrats are still singing their usual song, about the rich needing to pay their fair share.  Federally, the top 1% pay almost 40% of the taxes, and the top 10% pay 70% of the taxes.  The bottom 50% of taxpayers pay 3% of the taxes.  But according to Democrats, the rich still haven’t paid their “fair share.”  And the Blue States, faced with millions of  productive refugees fleeing high taxes, haven’t learned a thing.  They’re doubling down on their “tax the rich” mantra.

In New York, Commie Mamdani wants to raise all taxes, but promises to target “white areas” of the City.  He’s even proposed a pied a terre tax, on properties valued at over $5 million, whose owners don’t live full time in the City.  Picture this.  A $5 million property already pays property tax of about $200,000 a year.  So Mamdani wants to add a surcharge of nearly $40,000, to further tax people who don’t consume City services.  What could possibly go wrong?  Maybe they’ll dump their New York second homes for a $5 million property in Miami Beach, where the tax is $41,000 a year, with no surcharge.

Perhaps the best example of State taxes causing an exodus is in the State of Washington.  Until this year, Washington didn’t tax income.  They now have imposed a 9.9% tax on earnings over $1 million.  This already has caused Jeff Bezos and the Starbucks CEO to move away.  66 other businesses have fled the State, including Meta and Oracle, taking tens of thousands of jobs with them.

The 9.9% tax is on top of a Seattle sales tax of 10.5%, plus high property taxes.  Seattle’s Socialist Mayor is unconcerned, however, telling the fleeing billionaires, “Bye.”  When she tries to close the budget hole that the loss of these billionaires and companies will cause, she may be singing a different tune.

But all these taxes are still not enough for the Left, which is also touting a “wealth tax.”  What this is, is an annual tax on what the government decides a person’s property is worth, including unrealized gains.  In other words, you bought stock for $10,000.  The stock price tripled, but you haven’t sold the stock.  Leftists want to tax your $20,000 unrealized profit.  It gets worse.  Many people are living in homes bought for $200,000, that now are worth $1 million.  But, you say, “I don’t have that money in my hand.”  The wealth tax proponents don’t care.  Like Paulie from Goodfellas, their response is, “You had a bad week, fuck you, pay me.”

On the federal level, it’s likely such a tax is unconstitutional, based on a 1920 Supreme Court opinion that decided that unrealized increases in value are not income which can be taxed.  On the State level, they will cause only more flight from the Blue States.

The bottom line is, if the Blue States don’t wise up, they will lose more Congressional seats, and thus, electoral votes due to decreased population.  In 2030, it’s expected that 8 House seats will move to Red States.  Don’t bet on the Dems wising up.  I’m not convinced that the leftist fanatics will ever decide they were wrong.