Stephen Moore is a conservative commentator. His specialty is promoting the economic talking points that Snyder is selling. Joe Rogan is worse. What is not being factored into trying to apply any conclusion to the past ten years? COVID. You have to be purposefully deceitful to not acknowledge that COVID first of all, made many decide to retire early, and as such then seek the same retirement migration patterns already discussed. On top of that COVID also forced many to find cheaper places to live, forcing them into the south. The final consideration here is that COVID revealed a new economy which included hybrid and remote work. The beauty of remote work is you do not have to live where the job is.
"He is right. This really is one of the largest mass migrations in our entire history. The red state that has gained the most from all of this domestic migration is Florida. Among large states (those with a population above the 50-state average), the net-domestic-migration winner over the 13-quarter period after COVID-19's arrival was Florida. The Sunshine State added a net tally of 819,000 Americans over that span. To put that into perspective, in just three years and change, Florida added more people from net domestic migration than the combined populations of Miami and Orlando. The large-state runner-up: Texas. It added 80% as many people as Florida (656,000). The state that lost the most was California, which shed 1.2 million people through net domestic outmigration"the rough equivalent of San Francisco and Oakland's combined populations. The runner-up loser was New York, which lost about three-quarters as many people as California." - Michael Snyder
It would not surprise me that during the two years of the worst viral plague of our lives, many people were forced to find less expensive places to live. What it is not however, is a political commentary. No one sat around the kitchen table and decided to move to a red state because it votes red. That is patently absurd. Florida and Texas do not have state taxes. They also have two of the most depressed economies in the country, which again, is why people retire there. So, it should not surprise anyone, let alone someone pretending to be an economist like Moore, that during the deep financial crisis of COVID that many fled the more expensive places to live such as New York and California to the least in Florida and Texas.
"Not too long ago, Florida was considered to be a "swing state" that was divided almost equally between Democrats and Republicans. But now it is solidly red. Many conservatives are attracted to the Sunshine State because there is no state income tax. Of course the spectacular weather doesn't hurt, either. According to a real estate company known as "Conservative Move," large numbers of conservatives have also been relocating to South Carolina. Conservative Move, a real-estate company with about 500 agents across the country, helps conservatives find homes near like-minded people"and South Carolina is becoming a big draw. The group's founder, Paul Chabot, told Business Insider that while Texas and Florida consistently rank among the top locations his conservative clients choose to move to, he's seen a big spike in the number of people who want to relocate to South Carolina in the past two years. He said his company currently has about 5,000 clients who are considering moving to the state soon." - Michael Snyder
The shift in Florida politics is correct but of course Snyder omits the reasons. The explosion of Cuban Hispanics in formerly democratic bastions in southern Florida is often cited as a main driver. That said, there are often changes in state voting patterns and they usually have very little to do with the narrative Snyder is selling. Georgia for example was redder than Florida was blue and now both Senators are Democratic. At least Snyder admits that state taxes and weather also play a role in relocation. South Carolina by the way, is barely above the three lowest states in average salary. Hopefully I would not have to point out that relying on data from an organization that only relocates conservatives to conservative neighborhoods probably should be relied upon for anything significant.
"I really like South Carolina. In fact, in my latest book I ranked it number three out of all 50 states. I would just recommend staying away from the coast and the major population centers.
In addition to a mass migration from blue state to red states, we are also seeing lots of people relocate to small towns and rural communities. The remote work boom that prompted Americans to flee urban areas for mountain hamlets and seaside towns during the pandemic continued at least through last year, according to University of Virginia demographer Hamilton Lombard. An estimated 291,400 people last year migrated from other areas into America's small towns and rural areas, which Lombard defines as metropolitan areas with 250,000 people or fewer." - Michael Snyder
So, South Carolina is great but stay away from the coast and population centers? How infantile in its obviousness. PEOPLE are in the population centers. This again reinforces that we are not talking about mass migration from blue to red but rather, from population centers to more rural or suburban centers. At least Snyder admits that the remote work realities have also fed these patterns. This combined with the COVID realities discussed are actually what is going on. Snyder knows this but that does not feed his narrative.
