Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski joined Dan Proft and Amy Jacobson on Chicago’s Morning Answer. They discussed the out-migration of young people from Illinois, a new round of school closures, and Pritzker’s potential in the White House.
A new analysis by the University of Illinois Extension detailed the population loss plaguing Illinois. Not only are we losing population, but the median age is rising; Young people – college grads, wage earners – are fleeing their home state for more friendly economies.
“The number just keep getting worse, and the sad thing is that when it’s a drip-drip-drip like that, no one does anything about it. Until one day, suddenly, we realize we have a problem,” Dabrowski said. “That’s the Brain Drain that any city or state should fear, because once you get Brain Drain, you’re done. You get that in all those southern Illinois cities where they’re losing their smart people, the young people, and they’re not coming back.”
Other reports this week say Pritzker is being considered for a presidential run in 2024. Though he denied it, he might be the perfect candidate.
Pritzker’s legislative actions match up with the Democrats’ agenda perfectly: environmental policies, access to abortion, minimum wage hikes, and wokeness.
“If America wants the America of Illinois, he’s the guy. But if you want to see how Illinois is being wrecked, then that would be a rejection of all those policies,” Dabrowski said.
Weekly crime statistics from the Chicago Police Department: Report through 5/4/2024.
Gov. JB Pritzker calls it “ethics” reform.
It’s rare to see city leaders in Chicago take an open, unabashed stance on the collapse of literacy. To complain is deemed as too political, too racist or too anti-public schools. So it’s refreshing to see Willie Wilson, a successful businessman and leader of the black community, call for a literacy initiative “with the goal of getting 100% of Black students reading at grade level.”
While this new advisory referendum could be nothing more than a political distraction, it could also be that lawmakers are gauging Illinoisans’ appetite for another bite at a progressive income tax hike – this time with lower property taxes as a sweetener.
At $1.5 million per job, the new incentive package from the state is at least 15 times the norm. For this much money, the state could have just handed out a million bucks to 827 people, instead of creating 550 jobs.
Retired to South Carolina. Great weather, low taxes, republican/common sense led!
Moved to Indiana over a year ago,and very happy about it,still like checking out this site though,its like watching a train wreck in slow motion.
Can’t wait till it goes off the rails and I can say, “I told you so” to all those who dismissed my warnings.
Our son graduated 20 years ago from a small private high school in suburban Chicago. He, along with three others, were at the top of the class—two of them commended National Merit Scholars and two National Merit finalists. The boys came from what, nowadays, would be large families—one a family of 8 children. Today, these intelligent men are married professionals—attorney, doctor, financial advisers—holding responsible positions in their communities and raising families of their own. But for one, they have fled the state of Illinois, raising their families and contributing their talents to neighboring states. Not only that, ALL of the… Read more »
You’re making a LOT of generalizations based upon a very small sample size. I’m sure you will have lots of agreement on this website. Still, that is also a small sample size notably tilting to the right politically and not necessarily representing IL voters as a whole.
Generalization yes, but backed up by actual facts. Illinois has a long, sad history of everybody leaving: young and old, rich and poor. https://wirepoints.org/new-irs-migration-data-illinois-third-biggest-loser-of-people-biggest-loser-of-incomes-to-other-states-in-2019-wirepoints/
Yes, I’m aware of that, but the 2020 census showed the NET IL poulation loss since the 2010 census was nearly insignificant statistically. The counter argument argument I also know: the average income of those leaving was substantially more than those moving into IL. That’s the worrisome side of it in terms of IL state revenue collections with the passage of time.
I think that is the point Silverfox made in his initial comment….
Anecdotal evidence can fail to present an accurate or holistic picture; yet at the same time it may serve as a beacon to further inquiry and confirmation of supported by data. I think Silverfox’s anecdotal references in this case are powerful. The kind of data needed revolves around the upper middle class – the group making 250-750k in income. They pay a disproportionate amount of taxes (irrespective of the nature of the tax), and from a government revenue perspective, it is where the money is. The challenge is that many of them are not executives in large companies, but business… Read more »
I agree with each of your arguments, but the current woke ideoglogy seems to do its best to turn common sense attitudes of the past into mush. To the extent that we start to think that way in terms of laws and as a society its an untested mixture of “its about time” in some respects and “we’re doomed” in others. The current philosophy of striving for equal outcomes for members of the various racial classifications apparently regardless of individual merit seems the worst of it to me.
People tend to gravitate towards normalcy. Illinois is in no way shape or form “normal” unless of course you consider gaslighting and taxation theft to be normal.
My wife and I are leaving Chicago after 10 years of living here. It’s been a heck of a ride but we will be planting our roots in a nearby state for a variety of reasons but the main impetus is the uptick in crime downtown. The social contract that we all have in living in downtown Chicago is that we put up the high cost of living and taxes, etc as long as they keep it safe. For the past two years that social contract has been violated and we will be moving accordingly. We will leave the lights… Read more »
Welcome to the club.
Welcome to the club x2 – Just did the exact same thing after 10 years on the north side. Moved to Sioux Falls, SD. Great move – very walkable city with a good offering of amenities. Lots of space, nice people, open & normal! Best decision I made.
Cheers to your move! It’s sad that we have to do this. But Chicago will never be the same again. Really it wasn’t great, but it was tolerable. I was fine with that – maybe too fine.
The Dems wil force the rest of the country to pay for Chicago’s and Illinois’ debts via Federal Bailouts, Federal Taxes, and Inflation (Fed new money creation to purchase Illinois and Chicago Bonds that the Fed will just keep refinancing so the Chicago Dem Mob never has to pay it pack).
Calling your relationship with downtown a ‘social contract’ is putting lipstick on a pig. Big city leaders have decided that equity is more important than enlightenment ideals and they’ve unleashed the anarcho-tyranny of BLM on an unwilling population.
But we’ve seen this all before and we’ll see it all again. Downtown will fall for 20-30 years and maybe the next generations will be able to see it rise again.
We just need enough non-woke voters to see through this facade of woke and run these losers out of office.
I’m with on running the losers out of office. They truly are losers of the highest order, but pre BLM things were looking pretty bleak in this state. We need a constitutional convention to give new leaders the tools they need to get costs in line and to create a plan of growth going forward. Illinois has a lot going for it, but the costs, through corruption and inept management have gotten out of control. Pensions are the elephant in the room. Until that is gotten under control, nothing substance can be done budget wise as it consumes 25% of… Read more »
Also we need to stop fighting and try to be positive. Negativity only spurs more divisiveness. Much of Rauners turnaround agenda was very good policy, couple that with public safety, true pension reform and a property tax freeze, and you might have a winner.