From the Wall Street Journal Opinion section, Allysia Finley writes The Reverse- Joads of California, 3/3/13.

Excerpts:

As it happens, most of California’s outward-bound migrants are low- to middle-income, with relatively little education: those typically employed in agriculture, construction, manufacturing, hospitality and to some extent natural-resource extraction. Their median household income is about $40,000—two-thirds of the statewide median—and about 95% earn less than $80,000. Only one in 10 has a college degree, compared with 30% of California’s population. Roughly 40% of the people leaving are Hispanic.

Even while California’s Hispanic population has grown by more than 1.5 million since 2005, thanks to high birth rates and foreign immigration, two Hispanics have moved out for every one that has moved in from another state. By contrast, four Hispanics from other states have settled in Texas and Arizona for every three that have left.

It’s not unusual for immigrants or their descendants to move in pursuit of a better life. That’s the history of America. But it is ironic that many of the intended beneficiaries of California’s liberal government are running for the state line—and that progressive policies appear to be what’s driving them away.

California’s staggering labor and energy costs—it has the nation’s most stringent fuel and renewable standards—have helped kill hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs in California’s interior. Note: Those are jobs that traditionally served as entry points to the middle class. The Golden State has shed a third of its manufacturing base over the past decade. And while the U.S. has added nearly 500,000 manufacturing jobs over the past two years, California’s heavy industry continues to erode.

HKO

In our federalist system the states act as political and economic laboratories. California’s statist supremacists have succeeded in driving up energy costs and housing costs while killing job opportunities and investment. The very people they claimed to help are leaving not for better benefits but for better opportunities and a better life.

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