A major California employer just announced that it will be moving 1,000 high-paying jobs out of state. Charles Schwab asserts that a major reason for the move is the sky-high housing costs in San Francisco. But the company is looking to move the operations to one or more of five states — NOT to another part of California where housing costs are (relatively) reasonable compared to crazy San Francisco.The candidates for the Schwab operations: Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Arizona and — of course — Texas.

Even if the company TOTALLY left the grossly misnamed “Golden State,” Schwab would not have one bad word to say about California. They have too many customers here who might take affront — especially the people managing the massive pension funds. Plus, the state agencies will go after ANY business that does ANY business in CA.  Criticizing California could result in retaliation.  If it did so, Schwab would always be at risk.