I have long believed (I might be wrong, though it seldom happens) that my radio show was the first to use the cost of renting a U-Haul to gauge whether people were moving in or fleeing a particular place (if people are fleeing, the cost to rent a truck to move there is much lower, since U-Haul will subsidize you just to get some of its trucks back in stock.) This is why it costs so much more to rent a moving truck from L.A. to Dallas than to rent the same truck from Dallas to L.A. Nobody's going in the latter direction.

Now, here’s confirmation that that informal rule works: U-Haul announced that, for the fourth year in a row, California has topped its Growth Index list for having the largest net number of outbound residents (well, at least Gavin Newsom can claim he’s #1 in growth for something.) For the third straight year, U-Haul reports that Texas had the highest number of people moving in, and that doesn’t even count the millions streaming across the border since 2021.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/california-beats-every-state-residents-moving-away-fourth-year-row-uhaul-list

This isn’t just a simple popularity contest. It’s an important finding from the “laboratory of states,” proving that people are voting with their feet to reject leftist policies and embrace conservative policies. Census data shows that California lost a net 75,000 residents in 2023 alone.

Michael Barone at Townhall.com sifted through Census numbers for the three years since the pandemic and found more interesting trends:

https://townhall.com/columnists/michaelbarone/2023/12/29/startling-surprises-in-latest-census-numbers-n2632952

The West Coast is shrinking: Since April 2020, California has lost 573,000 people (previously, it had gained population every year since the 1849 Gold Rush, proving that leftist policies can turn even gold into manure.) Washington has gained just 108,000 people, Alaska only 32 (!), and Oregon and Hawaii have lost residents.

The biggest population losses came in blue states with the densest metro areas, including California, New York, Illinois and DC. To be fair, these places also have the densest leadership.

Meanwhile, almost all the population growth has been in the Southern states, which added over 3.8 million people fleeing from high taxes, woke regulators and COVID tyranny.

This mass migration from blue to red states could have far-reaching political consequences, particularly if the escapees resist voting for the same bad ideas that drove them to flee. Blue states may be losing their clout in DC as they lose population, and thus House seats, to red states. The bad news: blue states are turning bluer, with the remaining Republicans having little hope of ever turning around their decline. This is another reason why Democrats want to wave in millions of illegal immigrants, then demand to count them in the Census when apportioning Representatives.