California’s in the midst of another round of wildfires exasperated by the state’s failures of forest management. While Gov. Gavin Newsom surrenders his accountability to the religion of climate change, another politician-driven problem continues to plague the state: Businesses are fleeing.
It’s not just conservative media outlets such as the Daily Wire, which just announced it is leaving Los Angeles for Nashville. Financial services firm Charles Schwab announced it was moving its headquarters from San Francisco to Dallas last November. Schwab was joined in Dallas by Jamba Juice, Kubota Tractor Corporation, and Toyota Motor North America.
It’s estimated that 13,000 companies have left California between 2009 and 2016. California residents are also fleeing the state, mostly due to high taxes and the artificially inflated cost of living. But the other factor businesses face is an increasingly hostile regulatory climate: California has the third-highest regulatory burden in the United States.
The most prominent regulatory crackdown in recent years has been the state’s AB5, which has put a stranglehold on freelancers and the gig economy. The law, endorsed by Joe Biden, has hit everyone from truckers and janitors to interpreters and journalists. Ride-sharing companies Uber and Lyft have threatened to cease operation in the state unless a ballot proposition repealing parts of the law is passed in November.
In theory, California should be the perfect state. It has a collection of different climates, with Redwood forests in the north and the Mojave Desert in the south, sandwiched between the Pacific Ocean and the Sierra Nevada. It’s still currently the most populous state, meaning there are plenty of both consumers and potential workers for businesses. Yet people and capital are leaving in droves — California residents are quickly becoming former California residents.
State politicians are failing at every level. They’ve created the conditions for wildfires to tear through the state, dodging any accountability and blaming the omnipresent, omnipotent climate change. They’ve plunged headfirst into green energy while rejecting nuclear power, leading to rolling blackouts during a heat wave. They’ve overtaxed residents and overregulated businesses, leading both groups to trickle out of the state year by year.
The Golden State is losing its shine, and California politicians have no one to blame but themselves. Businesses and residents continue to flee. Those who stay have to wonder how long the lights will stay on and if they’ll be forced to evacuate their city to avoid the flames. For businesses, the warmer summer in Texas is worth the trade-off.
