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The numbers don\u2019t lie. The IRS\u2019 latest migration data shows that between 2022 and 2023, New York and California<\/a> posted a combined net loss of 373,309 people, taking with them $23.5 billion in adjusted gross income that both states no longer collect taxes on, verified directly from the IRS raw migration files. That\u2019s not people on vacation. That\u2019s the tax base, permanently reassigned. The CEO of the Partnership for New York City said it plainly: “The crowd that keeps daring businesses to leave should treat this as a flashing warning sign. When jobs go, revenue goes as well and the affordability problem gets worse.” That\u2019s cause and effect.<\/p>\n Wealth taxes<\/a> sound great until reality hits. Taxes aimed at the ultra-wealthy always land on the backs of the middle class. Job creators leave. The ones that stay raise prices or cut jobs. Services shrink. Costs rise. That\u2019s not a path to affordability. It\u2019s a roadblock to it.<\/p>\n California is the case study. The state recorded a net loss of 216,000 residents in 2025 alone, and Los Angeles County<\/a> led the nation in population decline, shedding 54,000 residents in a single year. Two policies are accelerating the exit. First, a retroactive wealth tax<\/a> is heading to the ballot, backed by 52% of voters. The wealthy are already gone. That eroded tax base lands on the middle class. Second, a push for a $30-per-hour minimum wage in Los Angeles and beyond. Mandatory wage floors increase unemployment, reduce labor demand and push prices higher. People aren\u2019t leaving California because they want to. They can\u2019t afford to stay.<\/p>\n BLUE STATES ARE CHANGING THE TAX RULES ON THE WEALTHY AND IT’S GOING TO COST ALL OF US<\/a><\/p>\n New York isn\u2019t far behind. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon warned this week that politicians who think excessive taxation is “moral” are hurting the cities they claim to help and that Americans “vote with their feet.” He\u2019s right. Mayor Mamdani is threatening a 9.5% property tax hike<\/a> on middle-class New Yorkers, hitting over 3 million residential units, most occupied by households earning around $122,000 a year, while eyeing the city\u2019s rainy day reserves to plug the gap. Taking more from people who are already stretched doesn\u2019t close the affordability gap. It widens it.<\/p>\n So where are people going? Florida, Texas, Tennessee, Nevada, all states with no income tax. The capital is following. Bloomberg reported that between 2020 and early 2023, more than 370 investment firms managing $2.7 trillion in assets relocated their headquarters out of high-tax states and into the Sun Belt. New York and California each lost roughly $1 trillion in managed assets. Money flows in the direction of least resistance. It always has.<\/p>\n For those who stay, the experiments don\u2019t improve. In Cook County, Illinois<\/a>, a guaranteed basic income pilot provides $500 in unconditional monthly payments to over 3,200 families. Advocates are pushing to expand it to 100,000 Illinois residents statewide, and a coalition of 150 city officials called “Mayors for Guaranteed Basic<\/a> Income” is driving the same push nationwide. No strings attached for recipients, but a giant one attached to taxpayers.<\/p>\n The third leg of the progressive affordability stool is price controls<\/a>. Politicians have accused grocers of gouging, even as the Food Industry Association puts average grocery net margins at 1.7 percent. That\u2019s not gouging. That\u2019s survival. These same voices want healthcare costs capped, ignoring that a government insurance mandate broke that market. Rent freezes are already<\/a> on the table in New York City. The logic never changes: declare a crisis, blame the private sector, impose controls. What follows is just as predictable: supply falls, investment stops, shortages deepen and the calls for more intervention grow louder. Price controls don\u2019t solve the affordability problem. They cement it.<\/p>\n