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As a native, life-time Californian I cannot believe anyone is leaving. You'll never find a state as progressive as California- energy, taxes, social causes, ta

As a native, life-time Californian I cannot believe anyone is leaving. You'll never find a state as progressive as California- energy, taxes, social causes, taxes, transit, homelessness, taxes, housing prices, political corruptness, taxes. The best part about my fellow, life-time Californians leaving California is how they simply continue to vote the same way no matter where they end up. This is a great mechanism for allowing for more states just as progressive as California, which they will unfortunately leave at some point too!

mistrial9 5y ago
"my house has risen in value thirty percent in just two years"
- rcpt 5y ago
  "my property taxes are set to 1990"
tharne 5y ago
> The best part about my fellow, life-time Californians leaving California is how they simply continue to vote the same way no matter where they end up. I've seen this a lot, and never understood it.
- gedy 5y ago
  The politicians look correct or virtue signal some low effort things and people vote for them by default.
- twblalock 5y ago
  They don't realize that voting that way is what led to the outcomes that made them want to leave California -- particularly on issues like taxation and housing.
umeshunni 5y ago
I'm assuming this post is sarcasm
akira2501 5y ago
Why the state feels a need to have a surplus of 31 billion when most of it's residents are struggling is entirely beyond me. I wish California could attract governors who have no presidential ambitions.
- pm90 5y ago
  Or just progressive governors instead of centrist ones. There’s a lot of political talent in the state but also a lot of rich, powerful people who want to preserve the status quo.
- mywittyname 5y ago
  > I wish California could attract governors who have no presidential ambitions. Like the one you had who was constitutionally prohibited from being president?
- TameAntelope 5y ago
  Are most of its residents "struggling"? What is the definition of "struggling" you're using here?
- swatcoder 5y ago
  I don't follow. California is a industrious state with a diverse portfolio of large industries: from agriculture, resource extraction, entertainment, aerospace, defense, tech, real estate speculation, etc. Depending on how the market moves for those industries, the state can easily end up with a big surplus or big deficit in any given year. Surpluses and deficits have almost no inertia and aren't very meaningful on their own. There's naive political pressure to react to them immediately (everybody wants a slice of the surplus; everybody wants to use a deficit to undermine governing party candidate) but it's not responsible governance. If anything, I'd expect politically ambitious governors to take the bait and spend surpluses immediately on programs or tax cuts that win them attention, which sounds like the opposite of what you're saying.
- ravenstine 5y ago
  Sacramento has done an astounding job at selling its image to the population. Though I think part of it does come from the psychology of good weather all year. If it's always sunny and there's palm trees everywhere, rather than cold and rainy all the time, aren't you gonna be less interested in politics and more so in just chilling out? If California's climate was harsher, I believe the hogs would have been slaughtered years ago.
ravenstine 5y ago
Yikes, for some reason I didn't compute at first that your first few sentences were a form of levity. I was getting ready to respond as if you were that out of touch. haha As a fairly disgruntled Californian myself, there are fellow Californians I know who aren't that far off from the attitude you described sarcastically. I feel kind of bad because I think they know deep down that reality is gradually no longer reflecting their viewpoint, and they can't admit it. I have a very good long time friend, for instance, whose politics have been pretty much entirely implemented by the state over our lifetimes. He's very much a self-described "progressive", and that puts it lightly (he also considers himself a communist, but he's more bashful about that). He, being a once openly political guy, no longer opens his mouth about these issues because he can't deny that other states and entire other countries with smaller economies are surpassing us in those regards. Take energy, for instance. California's leaders have stated explicitly many times over the years that we are "leading the nation" and "setting an example for the world" with our policies towards infrastructure, yet what do we have to show for it? Blackouts? Massive wildfires caused by the electrical grid? The closing of nuclear plants? Give me a break. Then there's the social issues and homelessness. Maybe it's a case of the frog being boiled slowly, because to me I've clearly seen a massive decline in our cities over my lifetime. I'm ashamed to show visitors around LA and refuse to do so at this point because the homeless encampments are so widespread. I'm absolutely for helping the homeless, but we also have this effect where the homelessness has permeated everything. And yeah, to be stereotypical, our roads are crap, despite how frequently parts of them are closed off for maintenance. Every time I drive in another state, I'm stunned at how nicely paved the highways are. In much of SoCal, you can expect lots of pits, cracks, and seams to cause a bumpy ride. There's even a part of the 210 freeway that, I kid you not, reminds me of that scene from the Pixar movie "Cars" where Lightning has to pour new asphalt on the main road and it comes out all patchy and awful. Yet there are still people in complete denial or in delusion. The rest of the world has moved on, and because California is too-big-to-fail with its abundance of resources, it's effectively in the "cash cow" phase that most corporations experience where nothing needs to change because the hogs can keep feeding from the trough. Basically, California is the IBM of states; we're old and slow and boring, but everyone's still relying on our mainframes.
- thehappypm 5y ago
Xcelerate 5y ago
The ones leaving California are for the most part not the progressives.

mistrial9 5y ago

"my house has risen in value thirty percent in just two years"

rcpt 5y ago
"my property taxes are set to 1990"

tharne 5y ago

> The best part about my fellow, life-time Californians leaving California is how they simply continue to vote the same way no matter where they end up. I've seen this a lot, and never understood it.

gedy 5y ago
The politicians look correct or virtue signal some low effort things and people vote for them by default.
twblalock 5y ago
They don't realize that voting that way is what led to the outcomes that made them want to leave California -- particularly on issues like taxation and housing.

umeshunni 5y ago

I'm assuming this post is sarcasm

akira2501 5y ago

Why the state feels a need to have a surplus of 31 billion when most of it's residents are struggling is entirely beyond me. I wish California could attract governors who have no presidential ambitions.

pm90 5y ago
Or just progressive governors instead of centrist ones. There’s a lot of political talent in the state but also a lot of rich, powerful people who want to preserve the status quo.
mywittyname 5y ago
> I wish California could attract governors who have no presidential ambitions. Like the one you had who was constitutionally prohibited from being president?
TameAntelope 5y ago
Are most of its residents "struggling"? What is the definition of "struggling" you're using here?
swatcoder 5y ago
I don't follow. California is a industrious state with a diverse portfolio of large industries: from agriculture, resource extraction, entertainment, aerospace, defense, tech, real estate speculation, etc. Depending on how the market moves for those industries, the state can easily end up with a big surplus or big deficit in any given year. Surpluses and deficits have almost no inertia and aren't very meaningful on their own. There's naive political pressure to react to them immediately (everybody wants a slice of the surplus; everybody wants to use a deficit to undermine governing party candidate) but it's not responsible governance. If anything, I'd expect politically ambitious governors to take the bait and spend surpluses immediately on programs or tax cuts that win them attention, which sounds like the opposite of what you're saying.
ravenstine 5y ago
Sacramento has done an astounding job at selling its image to the population. Though I think part of it does come from the psychology of good weather all year. If it's always sunny and there's palm trees everywhere, rather than cold and rainy all the time, aren't you gonna be less interested in politics and more so in just chilling out? If California's climate was harsher, I believe the hogs would have been slaughtered years ago.

ravenstine 5y ago

Yikes, for some reason I didn't compute at first that your first few sentences were a form of levity. I was getting ready to respond as if you were that out of touch. haha As a fairly disgruntled Californian myself, there are fellow Californians I know who aren't that far off from the attitude you described sarcastically. I feel kind of bad because I think they know deep down that reality is gradually no longer reflecting their viewpoint, and they can't admit it. I have a very good long time friend, for instance, whose politics have been pretty much entirely implemented by the state over our lifetimes. He's very much a self-described "progressive", and that puts it lightly (he also considers himself a communist, but he's more bashful about that). He, being a once openly political guy, no longer opens his mouth about these issues because he can't deny that other states and entire other countries with smaller economies are surpassing us in those regards. Take energy, for instance. California's leaders have stated explicitly many times over the years that we are "leading the nation" and "setting an example for the world" with our policies towards infrastructure, yet what do we have to show for it? Blackouts? Massive wildfires caused by the electrical grid? The closing of nuclear plants? Give me a break. Then there's the social issues and homelessness. Maybe it's a case of the frog being boiled slowly, because to me I've clearly seen a massive decline in our cities over my lifetime. I'm ashamed to show visitors around LA and refuse to do so at this point because the homeless encampments are so widespread. I'm absolutely for helping the homeless, but we also have this effect where the homelessness has permeated everything. And yeah, to be stereotypical, our roads are crap, despite how frequently parts of them are closed off for maintenance. Every time I drive in another state, I'm stunned at how nicely paved the highways are. In much of SoCal, you can expect lots of pits, cracks, and seams to cause a bumpy ride. There's even a part of the 210 freeway that, I kid you not, reminds me of that scene from the Pixar movie "Cars" where Lightning has to pour new asphalt on the main road and it comes out all patchy and awful. Yet there are still people in complete denial or in delusion. The rest of the world has moved on, and because California is too-big-to-fail with its abundance of resources, it's effectively in the "cash cow" phase that most corporations experience where nothing needs to change because the hogs can keep feeding from the trough. Basically, California is the IBM of states; we're old and slow and boring, but everyone's still relying on our mainframes.

thehappypm 5y ago

Xcelerate 5y ago

The ones leaving California are for the most part not the progressives.