How many Californians will leave?

Dec. 4, 2012

By John Seiler

The big question before us in 2013: How many Californians will skedaddle out of Taxifornia next year? Taxes are going way up, not just at the state level, but at the local level. Even supposedly “conservative,” “anti-tax” Orange County passed five of six local school bonds, meaning massive property tax increases.

The Legislature, run by a new Democratic supermajority, is salivating like Pavlov’s dog every time someone mentions “repeal Prop. 13.”

Americans are the most mobile people in history. It’s easy to plop the kids, the dogs and the luggage in the SUV and “light out for the territories” like Huck Finn. Those who came here can leave.

Sure, it’s tough leaving behind the beautiful weather, the New Year’s Day bar-b-q’s, the surfing.

But it’s easy to leave behind the impossible housing prices, the record high taxes, the failing public schools, the anti-human state and local politics.

Unless you’re a 180-IQ computer genius in Silicon Valley or a government worker biding your time for your massive pension, there’s little reason to stay here other than the weather. And the bad weather isn’t as bad as it seemed. Or even if it is, it can be endured more easily than high taxes and housing, which cannot be endured at all.

Over the next year, we’re going to be seeing a lot of stories about more people getting out of Jerrytopia to find their fortunes elsewhere, instead of seeing their livelihood sucked into the maw of the giant state-union octopus.