Jeff Jacoby reports that for the second year in a row, Massachusetts’ population has declined. Gee, why would people be leaving such a wonderful place as this? Housing is about the most expensive in the country, taxes are ridiculous, left-wing social re-engineering is well underway, nearly our entire political system is corrupt, and crime is rampant. For Catholics, our churches are emptying (and being sold off), heresy and heterodoxy is fairly well tolerated, and Voice of the Faithful types apparently have a stranglehold on our dioceses. Other than that what’s the problem?
During the 12 months ending July 1, 2005, the Bay State experienced a net loss of more than 8,600 residents, or 0.1 percent of its population. It was one of only three states to end the year with fewer people than it had at the start—New York and Rhode Island were the others—and the only one to do so for the second year running.
But that’s only 8,600 people, you say. That’s nothing for a state of several million residents. Sure, but when you subtract foreign immigrants from the equation—you know, all those people going to college here and working in our hospitals and all those companies in Cambridge—since 1990 the state has lost 213,000 residents. Even worse, a quarter of all residents would leave if they could.
What’s driving them out?
Technorati Tags: liberalism, Massachusetts, politics
