Boom and Bust

Coastal Megalopolises lose out to Interior Boomtowns. Michael Barone chronicles the shift. Native born outflows outnumber immigrant inflows to the coastal (including the Middle Coast of Chicago) cities. And the political consequences are significant:

Democratic politicians like to decry what they describe as a widening economic gap in the nation. But the part of the nation where it is widening most visibly is their home turf, the place where they win their biggest margins (these metro areas voted 61% for John Kerry) and where, in exquisitely decorated Park Avenue apartments and Beverly Hills mansions with immigrant servants passing the hors d'oeuvres, they raise most of their money.

The bad news for them is that the Coastal Megalopolises grew only 4% in 2000-06, while the nation grew 6%. Coastal Megalopolitan states--New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Illinois--are projected to lose five House seats in the 2010 Census, while California, which has gained seats in every census since it was admitted to the Union in 1850, is projected to pick up none.

Why are people moving out if they can? In search of lower taxes. More house and space for the money. Freedom.

Chicago has slowed the shift somewhat by the growth of the South Loop which has become a university town, but the near suburbs are losing population to the exurbs and overall Cook County is losing bigtime.

The Dems tho can inflict their class warfare mentality on themselves, but we don't buy it, because everyone is getting richer. And we can leave.

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