California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, wants to be president of the United States. He might be better off first attempting to address the many festering pathologies that he has helped create in his own state.

Over the past decade, California has lost nearly 10 million residents to other states. Most are fleeing the oppressive tax and regulatory regime that Democrats have created in the once Golden State. Others simply can’t afford to stay, smothered by the high cost of living, primarily housing costs.

It turns out that destructive policies have real consequences.

Last month, the California Policy Lab at UC Berkeley released the results of a study examining 10 years of data on out-migration. It found that fleeing California — to Nevada, Idaho, Oregon, Arizona and elsewhere — has proved beneficial for a great many former residents.

Not only did people who left “dramatically” improve the financial condition, the Los Angeles Times reported, they saved “almost $700 in monthly housing costs” and “became 48 percent more likely to own a home in their new state compared with California.”

One of the report’s co-authors summed it up. “Pretty much anywhere else is more affordable than California,” Evan White said. “People were going to dramatically less expensive locations.”

This paid off most handsomely when it came to owning a home. According to the analysis, “Californians who left the state were much more likely to own a home a few years later. That likelihood grows over time such that seven years after leaving California, movers were 11 percentage points (or 48 percent) more likely to be a homeowner than those who stayed in the state, even after controlling for age.”

The report also found that those rushing for the exits are not all from lower-income areas. Instead, “the share of Californians leaving the state from higher-income communities increased 6.4 percentage points (19 percent) between the pre-pandemic and post-pandemic periods.” In other words, California’s robust welfare state protects the underclass, but the taxes necessary to pay for it are a burden for many upper-middle-class residents.

Nor has a rush of newcomers helped offset the decline. “Forty-two states now send fewer people to California than they did 10 years ago,” the study discovered. “For the vast majority of states (34), declines in entrances to California outpaced increases in exits from California.”

Democrats control both houses of the Nevada Legislature and frequently take their cues from their counterparts in Sacramento. Meanwhile, national Democrats have latched on to the “affordability” mantra as a means of attacking the Trump administration. Yet what’s happening in California should be a flashing red light signaling the dangers of exuberant progressive governance. Affordable indeed.

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