Massachusetts Secretary of State Bill Galvin’s closed-eyed look at population loss
As noted here a week ago, Massachusetts is losing population while America’s is growing rapidly. Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth Bill Galvin has now weighed in on the population loss that the state is facing. In an op-ed in the Boston Globe, Galvin fingers high housing costs and job losses as the main reasons for recent population trends.
Unfortunately, the op-ed is borderline worthless as Galvin doesn’t mention that Massachusetts is losing Americans and gaining immigrants. As the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston’s recent report on demographic changes in Greater Boston 1990 - 2000 makes clear, immigrants are driving away white Americans.
So the problem is not that Massachusetts isn’t attractive, it just isn’t very attractive to white Americans anymore. But Galvin simply ignores that fact, opting instead for the safe route of bland policy suggestions.
