Americans Leaving Union States

What do Michigan, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania have in common?

They have been losing businesses and workers.

What do Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina and Texas have in common?

They have been gaining workers.

As Arthur Laffer and Stephen Moore wrote in The Wall Street Journal, the states shedding workers tend to be heavily unionized.

Those gaining workers tend to be right-to-work states.

From 2000 to 2009, consider these facts regarding the 22 right-to-work states and 28 union-shop states:

Gross state product: Up 54.6 percent for right-to-work states, up 41.1 percent for union-shop states.

Personal income: Up 53.3 percent for right-to-work states, up 40.6 percent for union shop states.

Population: Up 11.9 percent for right-to-work states, up 6.1 percent for union shop states.

From 2000 to 2008, 4.8 million Americans moved from union-shop states to right-to-work states, according to a study from the Cato Institute.

Unions by their nature are effective political forces in protecting their own interests.

But they don't help much in job creation.

People are voting with their feet.

Florida Times Union