Posted on by Californiacontrarian

A Tale of Two States


A marked contrast between two states.

From Zero Hedge:

A new report has found that Tennessee posted the largest net gain of U-Haul trucks than any other state in 2020, making it U-Haul’s top growth state for the first time. 

Growth rates are determined by the net gain of one-way U-Haul trucks entering a state versus leaving that state in a given year. U-Haul keeps tabs on more than two million one-way U-Haul truck customer transactions annually, allowing the company to observe migration trends, according to the report published by Texas and Florida were the top two other destinations. For three consecutive years, Texas had the largest net gain of one-way U-Haul trucks before Florida displaced it for the number one spot last year. Texas and Florida were the top two other destinations. For three consecutive years, Texas had the largest net gain of one-way U-Haul trucks before Florida displaced it for the number one spot last year. 

Before the pandemic, Americans fled from liberal-run states and metro areas because of high taxes to conservative states that were business-friendly, such as Texas and Florida. The pandemic certainly amplified the exodus

On the flip side, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, and Oregon were the top five states with the most significant net loss of U-Haul trucks. 

Whereas Tennessee was #1 for in-migration, California was #50, meaning that it was #1 for out-migration. Others at the bottom of that list included Illinois (#49), New Jersey (#48), and Massachusetts (#47). Does anyone see a pattern here?

Why would anyone want to leave California? The climate is outstanding. (I recall wanting to move to California many years ago while watching winter football games being played in 70 degree, sunny weather, while the temperature outside in Illinois was 20 degrees.) The nearby ocean is awesome, and the mountains are within driving distance. Again, who would want to leave? Perhaps we could ask Elon Musk, who is relocating to Texas. Why is he leaving?

From bizjournal.com:

As Covid-19 descended on California in March and April of this year, economies began to shut down and the debate raged over what businesses were deemed “essential.” Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla, and Alameda County authorities went back and forth over whether the Tesla plant in Fremont should be allowed to reopen.

This dialogue was punctuated by a pithy tweet from Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, who describes herself as a progressive Democrat, “F**k Elon Musk!”

At that time, we had no idea how much that tweet, and attitude, would cost California.

Nine months later, Elon Musk is gone. He is selling all his personal real estate in the state. He is now a resident of the state of Texas. He has moved his philanthropic foundation to Texas, too. This year, 2020, Elon Musk is likely paying billions in state tax. Next year, 2021, he will be a resident of another state.

In the last few weeks, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. (NYSE: HPE) and Oracle Corp. (NYSE: ORCL) have both announced they are moving their headquarters to Texas, with other potential moves in the pipeline.

In a nutshell, California state income tax is the highest in the nation, California’s ranking for “business friendliness” is the lowest, and we have elected representatives who would lob crass, vulgar F-bombs at the people who are paying the freight. 

Strong work, Ms. Lorena Gonzalez. Is she perhaps just another example of uninformed dumb California voters electing uninformed dumb State Representatives?

(BTW: Ms. Gonzales is married to Nathan Fletcher, who is the “Covid czar” in San Diego, despite the fact that he has no medical background and a very limited business background. His degree is a B.S in political science from Cal Baptist. Basically he is a politician who was initially a Republican, but is now a Democrat!  Any apparent similarity to “the villain” in my book, The Keneally Chronicles, is purely coincidental.)

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