Run Away: Fleeing Big Blue Cities and States

Is it any wonder Americans are fleeing big blue cities and states? Look no further than sitting Governor of New York Kathy Hochul’s come to Jesus moment, asking New Yorkers to be her vaccine Apostles.

You can imagine how this is going to go for those who refuse. Actually, it’s scary how many Americans are compliant and seem just fine being told how to live their lives. Well, Hochul and the like aren’t stopping with the vaccine and will carry this beyond the point of telling you how to run your family. That’s why Americans are fleeing states and cities where politicians want to tell them how to live. The WSJ reports on the epicenter of government intrusion into your life, Washington, D.C.:

The city lost a net of nearly 19,000 households to moves in 2020, according to U.S. Postal Service permanent change-of-address data. That was more than every state in the U.S. except California, New York, Illinois and Massachusetts.

What sickness has Covid spread en masse? Complacency, laziness, and a “What have you done for me lately?” attitude, as millions sit around all day. As financial reporter Andy Serwer notes, about a third of men do not work.

Almost one-third of all working-age men in America aren’t doing diddly-squat. They don’t have a job, and they aren’t looking for one either. One-third of all working-age men. That’s almost 30 million people!

How do they live? What are they doing for money? To me, this is one of the great mysteries of our time.

I’m certainly not the first person to make note of this shocking statistic. You’ve heard people bemoaning this “labor participation rate,” which is simply the number of working-age men (usually counted as ages 16 to 64) who are working or are seeking work, as a percentage of the overall labor force.

It’s true that the pandemic, which of course produced a number of factors that made working more difficult never mind dangerous, pushed the labor participation rate to a record low. But the fact that millions of American males have not been working precedes COVID-19 by decades. In fact, the participation rate for men peaked at 87.4% in October 1949 and has been dropping steadily ever since. It now stands at 67.7%.

As a business journalist for a good portion of those 70-plus years, I’ve looked at thousands of charts and graphs in my life, and I have to say this one is as jaw dropping as it is vexing:

Is it any wonder last year was the most violent on record? Zusha Elinson reports in the WSJ:

The number of homicides in the U.S. rose nearly 30% in 2020 from the prior year to 21,570, the largest single-year increase ever recorded by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The rate of 6.5 homicides per 100,000 residents is the highest since 1997 but still below historic highs of the early 1990s.

Action Line: You need to tackle this head-on and understand that for people like Hochul and Joe Biden, there is no end game until everyone falls in line and does what they’re told.

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E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

E.J. Smith is Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. His focus at all times is on preparing clients and readers for “Times Like These.” E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zildjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart (RIP) of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West (RIP JB) and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com To sign up for my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter, click here.

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