Watching the election returns filled me with foreboding for the future of the Northeast, upper Midwest, and West Coast states. Once known for innovative growth and creative entrepreneurs, they are now so dominated by the demands of their liberal Democratic constituencies (minorities, unions, the elderly) that there is no hope for economic growth in coming decades.

Manufacturing and knowledge industries will continue to leave the aging infrastructure and high sociological demands of the Democratic constituencies for the union-free, warmer, newer societies of the South.

The North and far West will continue to lose congressional seats to states from Texas to Georgia, while the North's population will age as the young move along with the many industries that are able to do so. The Northeast and upper industrial Midwest infrastructure will crumble while rising state and local taxes produce less revenue from fewer and fewer jobs.

As business owners realize they can pay 10 percent to 15 percent less in state and local income taxes, and lower property taxes, more will move businesses, accelerating the trend.

Bribing businesses with taxpayer money to settle here won't be enough to stop the decline. Unions in states that secured President Obama's re-election in the upper Midwest will be hit appropriately hard. Watch for the signs soon.