Granola Bar Exodus

People are leaving California in droves:

89,000 more people moved out of California than moved here from elsewhere in the United States. California's population did grow in fiscal 2007 -- but the growth rested on births and the arrival of more than 200,000 immigrants from other countries illegal aliens from Mexico.

Fixed that for you.

The shift dovetails with the state's weakening economy and is most likely related, said Howard Roth, chief economist for the Department of Finance.

Oh? You think perhaps millions of people who don't pay a dime in taxes but create an enormous burden on the infrastructure of the state might -- just maybe -- have something to do with the "weakening economy," Howard?

The exodus is in some ways similar to the early 1990s, when a national recession, tumbling housing market and massive cutbacks in Southern California's defense industry at the end of the Cold War prompted 1.2 million people to move to other states.

But Roth said the trend should be less severe this time because the state's economic problems -- and image problems -- are not as great.

What's frightening, Howard, is that you actually believe that line of crap. California doesn't have an image problem; California is an image problem -- for the entire United States.

"It won't be the lasting problem we had in the 1990s," Roth said. "It will go away."

Oh, something's going away all right, Howard. But it's not what you think.