The Loser List

More evidence has been published concerning the outbound residents from Illinois. The numbers are rather startling.

In an article by “Business Insider,” using the Census Bureau’s  Population Estimates program, 20 metro areas in the Midwest are bleeding residents….and nine of the twenty are within Illinois. That includes the top loser, Danville where they have lost almost seven percent of their population between 2010 and 2018.

The other eight include Springfield, Bloomington, Carbondale, Chicago, Kankakee, Peoria, Rockford, and Decatur. While not listed….we are also losing people here, within the sound of my voice.

The article doesn’t delve into the reasons for the exodus. That’s for people like me.

More local governmental units than any other state in the country…with one of the richest motor fuel tax rates….rampant corruption….shake well…and you have Illinois. One-fourth of the money needed to run state government goes to employee pensions…and that is only going to get worse.

Shall I go on? Six in ten people in the state say they have considered leaving. Obviously, the data shows that many are acting out that sentiment.  

The current political strategy to get Illinois out of debt is to increase taxes. Fewer people paying more taxes.  There’s a winner. Soon we will be able to add more cities to the loser list.

Napoleon Bonaparte said it best: “In politics, stupidity is not a handicap.”