PLEASE, DON’T CALIFORNICATE THE REST OF AMERICA: One might think people fleeing a disaster would avoid at all costs doing things that could repeat the calamity in their new home.

Sadly, as Issues & Insights notes in today’s editorial, that’s not always the case: “Here’s the problem. It’s one thing to move from a state because it’s going in the wrong direction. It’s quite another to move and not understand that you had something to do with it.”

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Time for my Welcome Wagon Project to educate voters who move on why they should’t replicate the environment they’re fleeing:

If I were one of those conservative billionaires (hello, Koch brothers! hi, Sheldon Adelson!) who are always donating tens of millions to support Republican candidates, I think I might try spending some of the money on something more useful: A sort of welcome wagon for blue state migrants to red states. Something that would explain to them why the place they’re moving to is doing better than the place they left, and suggesting that they might not want to vote for the same policies that are driving their old home states into bankruptcy.

Would it work? I don’t know. But it’s likely to be more useful than money thrown down the political-consultant rat hole. And if nothing else, it might spread a bit of economic literacy, which is always in short supply.

It’s time.