California seems like an interesting case. A disproportionate share of Nobel prize winners and other exceedingly bright people live here. At the same time Cali

California seems like an interesting case. A disproportionate share of Nobel prize winners and other exceedingly bright people live here. At the same time California has a large number of impoverished residents, a huge backlog of unfunded repair work on roads and bridges, huge unfunded worker pension obligations, much of the nation's worst traffic, a housing shortage for the middle and lower classes, severe water shortages in various places (like East Porterville), a persistent diversity problem in tech employment, a low credit rating, low per-capita spending on education, state college and university funding shortfalls, mediocre educational results at the elementary and secondary school levels, etc.