Oh No, You Didn't...(snap)

Instapundit and the Chicago Boyz dis on California. My email response (I hope they post it):

Inflated real estate prices hit California particularly hard. This is the primary reason middle class people move away - in order to afford a home or cash in. A real estate boom is hardly evidence of a broken system - on the contrary - it is evidence of too many people wanting to buy homes in California. And while the aggregate number of migration is the largest in the nation, as the percentage of the total population, considerably less significant. I suggest readers visit "socialist" San Francisco. You'll find one of the wealthiest cities in the nation brimming with beautiful redone homes, buildings, stadiums, the ferry building, etc. Here is a city that turned an earthquake in '89 into an excuse to tear down an ugly freeway on the waterfront and turned it into an awesome "South of Market" district that homes Gap corporate offices, Pac Bell Park, a high end food open market in the old ferry building, and huge work-live lofts populated with with dotcomers.

Is it possible the reason people leave California is because they can't "hack it" in a super competitive environment as opposed to "socialist" social policy causing the highly productive to go elsewhere?

In the libertarian/right wing blogosphere world, I notice an incredible distrust/distaste/dislike of California because of our left leaning, socialist tendencies. The irony, of course, is most of these people couldn't come to California and hack it in any of the super competitive, wealth creating industries such as Hollywood, Silicon Valley, Farming, or even in the more traditional banking, insurance, or law. I guess they don't understand how a state can be rich, creative, competitive on a global scale, and GASP - Democratic. Sorry folks, but you opened the door to the the brutal Social Darwin truth...