In both cases, it’s almost three times more expensive to rent a truck to leave California (from San Francisco or Los Angeles) and move to Texas (Dallas or Houst

In both cases, it’s almost three times more expensive to rent a truck to leave California (from San Francisco or Los Angeles) and move to Texas (Dallas or Houston) as it is to leave Texas and move into California, suggesting that there is a huge outmigration of trucks and people away from California to Texas. Wrong. This is a classic case of using hard data to jump to a false conclusion to support your argument. OP conveniently omits the simple fact that it has always cost 50% to 300% more to ship anything from west to east, whether its a rental truck, container, or LTL load. Why? Because most food in the United States moves from west to east. So the demand for space on equipment returning to California for more food has always been lower. Anyone involved in trucking, logistics, or distribution has known this for years. When in doubt, keep inventory in the eastern part of the U.S. because in an emergency, it's always cheaper to ship from east to west. Hell, many manufacturers have found it's actually cheaper to make a new product than to ship an existing one back from west to east. Entire manufacturing and distribution facilities have been built in the east financially justified by freight rate differences alone. Sorry OP, your false argument is outed. At least until someone figures out how to grow produce in Philadelphia in February.