Hat tip to David Codrea at The War on Guns:
The Heartland Institute put out an interesting article about how people are fleeing more repressive states.
The Heartland Institute’s mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. Such solutions include parental choice in education, choice and personal responsibility in health care, market-based approaches to environmental protection, privatization of public services, and deregulation in areas where property rights and markets do a better job than government bureaucracies.
Their article entitled “High Taxes Drive People and Jobs Out of States” says that just as nations compete economically, so do the individual states within the United States. “States that have controlled spending and taxes are doing better than states that have not done these things,” economist Stephen Moore said. “High taxes don’t redistribute income; they redistribute people. Our work on this book shows that.” States with the lowest tax, spending, and regulatory burdens win the competitiveness contest. These are primarily in the South and Southwest regions of the nation. California and states in the Northeast and Midwest are the biggest losers.
I then decided to overlay their map with the infamous Red State / Blue State from the 2004 Presidential election. I think it shows clearly that states with voted for Kerry - the more Liberal states - are the states that people are leaving. The states that voted for Bush - the more Conservative states - are the states that are attracting people.
I then decided to overlay their map with states that Allow, Restrict, or Deny the legal carrying of handguns. While not as clear as the Red State / Blue State map there are still similarities between those states that do not allow, or restrict, the legal carrying of a handgun, and the inherent ability of law-abiding citizens to defend themselves from criminals, and those states that are losing residents to other states.
SUMMARY: People don’t like paying ever-increasing taxes. People do not appreciate the government controlling more and more of their lives. People are coming to the realization that they cannot depend on the government or its agents to protect them from crime. Those than can are escaping Liberalism and its woes and moving to those states that reward and appreciate individual freedom. It really shouldn’t take three maps and careful analysis to figure this out - this is a basic need of all humans.
