Where have all the decent people gone?

Commentator Hugh Hewitt has an excellent take on the social ramifications when people like Phil Mickelson decide to leave an area.

Hewitt blogs:

When the Phil Mickelsons of a region begin to leave, there will be a problem, and not just because of the loss of tax revenues, though that will be a huge hit in places like California, but because of the flight of virtuous people who despair not of getting recognition but of simply not being treated as robber-barons by politicians and press alike.

If you could chart the amount of social capital fleeing places like California for other homes like Texas and Florida, the true cost of ill-conceived high-tax policies could be calculated.

Ask the executive directors of not-for-profits who people their boards and especially their fund-raising subcommittees. Los Angeles and New York City may never see their social capital elite vanish, but the consequences of indifference to givers is real and continuing in every state that punishes wealth creation and entrepreneurial success.

If a community mistreats its most generous citizens, those citizens leave in search of other places that will provide them a welcome and appreciation. The abuse heaped on Phil Michelson will not in the least change the actions of those being burdened by California’s policies, it will just make them quieter as they go about withdrawing from the state and all the activities they are involved in.

It is social capital suicide, and the folks condemning Phil Michelson are ignoring not just the reality of economic behavior, they are ignoring the consequences on communities impacted by far more than the loss of tax revenue. When a state legislator dismisses the problem by stating that Mickelson is "the exception rather than the rule," as California State Assemblyman Roger Dickinson did --he's a Democrat-- that state employee is not only ignoring the treasury of the state, they are ignoring the communities they allegedly represent.

I've been in organizations that are far worse off today because they let their most virtuous people walk away, or in some cases pushed them away. It can happen to states, too.