This stuff is interesting. The number of times I have heard from someone here in California, "yeah my friend/family member moved out of state" is beyond a number I can count.

I can tell you this. It started with the lock downs in California and its still happening. Some of the people I know that have moved had little logic to their decision and even less planning. It was a gut thing. Some have moved back due to this lack of reason. Others love the move.

I came very close to moving and did a lot of comparative research on many things in different states. But, when push came to shove... as messed up as California is, we have insulated ourselves as much as we can and really our day to day would not be that different (in the positive) and we'd lose a lot of things we love.

We humans tend to think the grass is greener on the other side and don't really consider all the trade-offs of change. Not that we didn't make changes but we didn't migrate. It blows my mind how some people basically move because of the perception of politics. Not the actual things on the ground.

If one lives in Dallas, it is more like Los Angeles than where I live. If you move to rural Tennessee it is VERY different from Nashville. I really love Tennessee and Nashville but a massive factor in where one lives is personal preference.

If you take all of that away though... for me TN would be a large financial bump up. Texas less so due to their stupid high property taxes. I do think its great that people are moving around and maybe making the lizard class rethink the edges of visions. Voting with your feet is a real option in the US. I wish states would exercise more autonomy and make the differences even more stark. In the next decades that could save a lot of bloodshed.