Trever Huft and his girlfriend are among the thousands of people who have decided to leave the state. The couple said they’re fed up, and the final straw was a COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
“The deciding factor for me is when they required my girlfriend to get the vaccination,” Huft told Sacramento's CBS 13. “Just to apply for a job.”
Huft drew the eyes of the news station over the “leaving communistic california” message he hand wrote on his truck’s rear window.
“I feel like that really sums it up. This place is...you do as you’re told,” Huft said, adding that the cost of living was another reason to move.
“That’s not life. That’s just going to work and trying to figure out where your next meal is.”
With the high cost of living and nearly unreachable home prices, some have predicted a “California exodus” over the last few years. But University of California experts said there’s no actual evidence of an abnormal increase of people leaving.
“Despite the popular notion of unhappy Californians leaving the state en masse, our robust research shows there is actually no exodus,” Thad Kousser said in a statement.
Kouser is chair of the political science department at UC San Diego and was the lead researcher in UC San Diego's survey on state population.
“Most residents say that they still believe in the ‘California Dream.’ Policymakers, including those trying to prevent an exodus, should focus more on those who are not as optimistic about the state’s direction, including many in the middle class facing steep housing costs and people from areas of the state facing the greatest economic challenges.”
Huft’s decision to leave his home in Natomas, Calif., echoes Kouser’s research and data collected by UCLA.
Researchers there found that young Americans were moving at double the rate of people over age 40. However, the rate of young people moving out of the state has offset the number of young people moving in.
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