Any US perspective on this?

[Ian]

Clearly I'm a long way away, but I came across this today and was interested to know more. Why are people dissatisfied, is it just a case of "the grass is always greener on the other side of the hill"?

 

http://www.vox.com/2014/4/30/5668588/illinois-connecticut-maryland-gallup-interstate-migration-rates

[FlyingMonkey]

It might be.  But those are two of the highest taxed states in the US Republic, and Illinois is probably the worst-managed state we have, teetering on complete bankruptcy.  I don't think your find similar results if you polled Texas, Florida, South Dakota, or other less taxed, better managed states.

[Anticept]

MrMorden: you just named three of the richest states too (two are energy empires and the last is a tourist trap). That will skew things a bit.

[Ed Cesnalis]

The grass is greener.  One contributing pattern is to get a government pension or two and when its time to collect move from the  big govt state to a low tax state and enjoy your time on the dole.

[Ian]

I'm sure in the UK people have similar aspirations to move but generally what stops them is the price of a house - the difference between the desirable and not-so areas is phenomenal which makes moving to "better" areas virtually unachievable for most people.

Of course geographically we are talking about much smaller distances so we end up with many folk commuting rather than moving - Sunday afternoon all the trains from the north west to London are full and roads busy with people who work in London but can't afford a house there!

[FlyingMonkey]

MrMorden: you just named three of the richest states too (two are energy empires and the last is a tourist trap). That will skew things a bit.

 

I might make the argument their tax policies are causal in that regard.  

[Tom Baker]

I'm from Illinois, and it is not pretty. You have the larger portion of the state being run by the corrupt Chicago political machine. The one good thing about Illinois is that it provides housing for our Governors when they are out of office.

 I was talking to a gentleman yesterday about his business. He deals in buying and selling large farms. He has customers who are selling farms in Illinois and moving to Arkansas or other states and buying better farms for about 1/3 the price of farms in Illinois. He also stated that tax rates on farm ground are much better in Arkansas.

[Ed Cesnalis]

People are fleeing:

• Property Taxes
• State Income Taxes
• Sales Taxes
• Home heating costs
• Gun control
• Loss of liberty due to leftist state government

We call it 'voting with your feet'

[Doug G.]

I find the comments interesting since the fastest growing state in the union is ND. Which did not participate in the recession, has the lowest unemployment rate, has maintained a budget surplus, always has more jobs than people to fill them. Oh, and is on the leading edge of UAS development in conjunction with one of the best aviation schools in the US. But, lower heating costs are not a part of it. Oh, and there are property taxes and income taxes

[ralarcon]

I find the comments interesting since the fastest growing state in the union is ND. Which did not participate in the recession, has the lowest unemployment rate, has maintained a budget surplus, always has more jobs than people to fill them. Oh, and is on the leading edge of UAS development in conjunction with one of the best aviation schools in the US. But, lower heating costs are not a part of it. Oh, and there are property taxes and income taxes

 

Answer is Jobs and salaries, outpace taxes. Its really mostly about how much income you get to keep, bottom line.

 

Cheers

[Doug G.]

That and a state higher education system that provides workers for high tech industry. (Which includes agriculture and oil.) The west it'd growing because of oil, the east because of support to the oil fields, agriculture, and general tech industries. (Cirrus is partially built there.) The upshot is that young people are staying and others are coming and enjoying the culture.