Why are so many people leaving California?

By: Jack Harris | Writer

September 9, 2020

California is the golden state: the place where everybody wants to vacation, where tourists flock from all over the world, and where many dream of living one day. The beautiful coast, the unique beach towns, the mountain ranges–California has everything. So why are so many people wanting to leave?

Well,  California is on the naughty list right now because of the Coronavirus. We have the most cases by far out of any state in the country right now, and with that large amount of cases comes a large amount of carefully structured restrictions on our daily lives. There are a lot of people here in Orange County who feel very strongly about the Coronavirus; some are deathly afraid of its impacts, and some could care less about what they think is some stupid virus. Either way, you could see why someone living in California would want to leave the state: to be free of all the restrictions we currently have because of the worrying number of COVID-19 cases. 

Even before the pandemic hit, people still were not happy with many of California’s policies, and some were opting to move out of state. Taxes are high, housing is expensive, and cities are becoming overcrowded–all completely valid reasons for someone to want to move out of California. 

According to calmatters.org, “California added 141,300 residents between July 2018 and July 2019…[however] more California residents are leaving for other states than vice versa, and have been since the 1990’s.”

Newly released census data shows that in 2018 alone, 691,000 people moved out of California, with the number one reason being the excessively high cost of housing. Those who leave California have been tending to move to Texas and bordering states such as Arizona, Nevada, and Oregon. You take the prior reasons to move out of state and add on a virus that is putting your state on lockdown, and California is now looking like somewhere you don’t want to be living. 

Many people use the argument that Gavin Newsom, or should I say Gavin Nuisance, is imposing way too many harsh restrictions on their daily lives, and that he is acting in the complete wrong direction with this virus. However, there are also people who say he is handling the virus perfectly. And so the radical divide in politics in California ensues. 

Former SCHS student Cash McConnell just made the decision to move to Wisconsin along with his family. The “schools [in Wisconsin] are completely open, you can go inside restaurants without masks, and people basically have gotten to return to their normal lives,” he said.

All of those things are unheard of in California; it will be weeks if not months before we get to have those luxuries back. Add the fact that housing is far less expensive and taxes are much lower in Wisconsin, and you, too, might be asking: why wouldn’t a family want to move there? 

This exodus from California does not stop with just people; many California-based businesses are now relocating to states such as Texas and Colorado where taxes are nowhere near as high as California. 

Chief Executive claims California is a less favorable business environment than other midwestern countries, and it is easy to understand why so many companies are relocating their headquarters. Some of these companies include Toyota, Nissan North America, Chevron, Nestle USA, and Carl’s Jr, a fast food chain that originated in California. Because of various companies leaving California, many people are losing their jobs, revenue for the state is decreasing, and the overall economy is taking damage. 

Even Tesla will be leaving California soon. A company that is known to be infinitely rich has had it with the California business environment, and that is truly saying something. Tesla employs thousands of people, yet all the governor said is, “I’m not worried about Elon leaving.” Governor Nuisance is definitely worried. 

Is California no longer the golden state? Have housing prices and taxes become too high for people to stay here? Well one thing is for sure: the government needs to meet the people’s demands, or else we are going to see many more people and businesses moving away from California.