svelte, I totally agree there’s two side to every story. What you and EconProf states can both be true and I feel CA’s public policies end result will yield exactly what the public officials complain about and wanted to fix (high wealth/income disparity). You have people who have high paying jobs who can survive here and stay. You’ll have people who are on welfare and section 8 who can afford to live here. All the people who are in the middle can no longer afford to live here, hence, they’ll move out and data shows it. I don’t see this trend reversing either.
As for those high paying jobs, if you net out cost of living, I don’t think those high tech W-2er are better off here. They just have more opportunities, but once they have a decent job, their pay vs rent isn’t as good as places like TX. But our weather and diversity here is awesome, so, people who can stretch it will stay/move in and put up w/ the higher cost of living.
The question is, what would happen when this migration trend continue for a few more decades. What would happen to all the rural area and small cities of CA? If you make min wage and live in Bakersfield, why wouldn’t you just move to places like Waco,TX? Weather is about the same, but you can buy a small house for <$100k vs $200k in Bakersfield. Also, in the big cities, I think that with more blue collar working (plumber/electrician/etc) moving out, those who are left will charge more for their service to afford the cost of living and due to simple supply/demand. So, net income for those high tech earner might not be so great.
