Long Time Residents are Fleeing Massachusetts Under Governor Healey’s Watch. In Addition, the State is Now Experiencing Negative Job Growth
What is causing this and what can be done to turn things around?
The chart above speaks for itself. The typical explanation given is the high cost of living in Massachusetts, especially related to housing. While there is no doubt that cost of living is a part of the story, there is a deeper explanation: It can be suffocating to live in Massachusetts that eventually wears on a person’s soul.
The state is constantly piling on regulations and rules aimed at restricting liberty and freedom of good, law-abiding citizens. For example, at a time where much of the country is reflecting and looking to correct the mistakes of the COVID lockdown era, Massachusetts is now doubling down on the nanny state mentality by looking to eliminate additional traditional personal health rights and basic family rights.
Of course, there are many other example areas as well, such as basic gun rights and personal protection rights.
Meanwhile, at the same time, the ruling class in this state appears to care much more about protecting real criminals—while attacking decent people over petty causes—with our politicians fervent support over concepts such as sanctuary cities and reluctance to cooperate with federal officials to address and remove sometimes violent illegal inhabitants a perfect example.
Of course, taxes are high, while basic infrastructure such as sidewalks, roads, and mass transit are in deplorable shape and everybody knows that blatant nepotism and plush jobs given as political favors in local DPW departments or state transportation agencies is why there is shoddy work and inflated prices, but the situation seems hopelessly in a vicious cycle that cannot be broken. It doesn’t help that there is an entrenched political class, with little hope for any turnover in fresh, new leadership that actually shakes the status quo.
Circumstances are spilling into other critical indicators of health such as job growth. As this chart above clearly explains, Massachusetts is at the bottom of the country in terms of job growth and is now actually in negative territory. This is likely due to a combination of factors mentioned above, such as population loss; high cost of living and taxes; overly burdensome rules and regulations; a political class more concerned with favoritism, identity politics, and control; too many restrictions on good, law abiding citizens; growing concerns over the erosion of basic safety and sense of community because of the coddling of actual criminals and people who know how to work the system; crumbling and unreliable basic infrastructure, etc. The list goes on and on.
The need for a significant shake-up is clear. State-level political apathy is no longer acceptable. The race for Governor via the November 2026 election is still in its early stage, yet a number of candidates appear to be lining up.
Will we also finally have a robust election season for Senate and House seats in the state legislature? Time will tell, but political change in the Massachusetts statehouse is surely needed.