Blue State Refugees

Eventually, city and state taxes, fees, and regulations become so burdensome that people and corporations jump ship. More people are currently fleeing New York than any other metropolitan area in the nation. More than 1 million people have moved out of the New York City metro area since 2010 in search of greener pastures, which amounts to a negative net migration rate of 4.4 percent.

I had a whole thing written up warning prospective carpetbaggers who wanted to bring the politics they now flee from to my neck of the woods with warnings that there are ass-raping hillbillies behind every tree, that they would be full immersion baptized morning noon and night, and that cows actually poop on the ground.

But Glenn Reynold's welcome wagon idea is probably smarter to go into so I'm going to right a few thoughts for my fellow rural citizens who have new neighbors that fled from urban utopias.

• Be friendly but not condescending.  This one is hard for me too, but we need to welcome our former city-mice to our neck of the woods without a superior attitude or human nature is going to cause a backlash that we don't want. So be patient and understanding since your new neighbors might be coming from an environment of significantly lower societal trust than you are used to.
• The surest way to lose someone is to be a hypocrite to what you are advocating. So take a good look to your own moral house and make sure that there isn't something you need to mend.
• Be firm but patient. Don't back away from your core beliefs and attempt to patiently explain why they have worked here. Don't smack back with why your neighbors hometown's systems have failed it, just stick to what has worked in your.
• Continue living your life happily and well. People will only change when ready to, the fact that your new neighbor has moved to your neck of the woods indicates some flexibility. If you set an example of why your way of life is better you have provided them with water that they may well be willing to drink.

Now this isn't going to work for everyone, there will be people who think that this time their socialist type systems will work and they'll have comparable lot of money to throw at convincing people around you that they know better. Cases like that are when you need to be able to point out to your fellow neighbors that there's good reason said carpetbagger had to flee his progressive urban utopia and that it can happen here if you let yourselves be persuaded by such false promises.