IMHO there is definitely a type of California exodus. Corporate entity middle class jobs that can be done from anywhere are leaving the state. Boom. You can go spend an hour in traffic in Austin or Nashville or DFW and have a lower cost of living. You can have a pickup truck and lawn. It might be a million degrees or brown/chilly except for a week in April and a week in October, but you can buy more sh!t at Wallyworld.
But Berkeley, Stanford, and perfect weather don't seem to be going anywhere.
There was an article about some ambitious relocation program by West Virginia. The natives are kvetching that it doesn't help them, but like the guy in the focus group said, it takes half a dozen guys to do what used to be done by a shitload more, and that's not tied to political or partisan ideology. The same old coal jobs just aren't coming back.
Not sure to what extent people will last there. West Virginia can be a very, very gloomy place. Lots of Lakes moisture gets pushed down to those mountains and clouds up. Relative to Central/Southern California's abundant sunshine, it can be a depressing place just to be human and have a normal daily cycle and want to see sun.
Still a beautiful landscape with some good mountain/river/hiking recreation opportunities though.
The population is fleeing, jobs are disappearing and coal isn’t coming back. West Virginia’s boldest plan to reverse the slide is bribing white-collar workers to move from out of state.
www.politico.com