I've also wondered if the high amount of income disparity in California is at least partially explained by the high amount of cost of living disparity in Califo

I've also wondered if the high amount of income disparity in California is at least partially explained by the high amount of cost of living disparity in California. There is a high amount of population that lives in agricultural areas like the Central Valley where the cost of living is drastically lower than the very population dense cities. If you compare the people there to the relatively smaller number of high income earners who live in the excessively high cost cities of Los Angelos, San Francisco, etc. then on a graph its going to look unfair. Even though the house in the Central Valley might actually be much bigger and nicer if you are ok living in the suburbs/ex-urbs.