In this thread, you should state why you left California. I'll go first: I left California because they raised my property taxes to build more space for LAUSD-managed school districts. Sold my condo at the peak in 2006 -- glad to say I was the last tick on the chart before the market for condos in my neighborhood collapsed. Maldonado f'd up. CA is toast now. Arnold was a complete RINO.
It truly is amazing how badly California's political leadership has f'd up, and the people there keep voting them in. Back when Cali overtook NY as the leading population center in America it had every advantage in the world. Some of the hardest working, most industrious and entrepreneurial people in the world (I still think they have that), the best climate anyplace on earth, tons of resourses, the best school system in the nation hands down, a very friendly enviornment for business, the best transportation system in the world etc etc etc. Every advantage anyone could want. They really ruined something that you wouldnt have thought could have been ruined, but a person really need only look at a city like Detroit, New Orleans etc to see what that type of leadership does and get an idea as to what the future of California ultimatly is.
You know, I wouldn't mind paying taxes if I got some kind of value in return. But with government, costs go up and quality of service goes down. What other business operates that way and actually stays in business?
Agreed. There is no other place that I would rather live, or raise a family. People here on ET love to take "pot-shots" at California, but they have no idea. They really don't.
When the economy stabilizes, and it will. Once the migration to CA has slows down, it has. After term limits kicks out the current batch of assholes, see redistricting. We now have someone in the White House who actually cares what happens to CA. If you like to eat, CA could feed the nation by itself. Green is the CHOSEN industry that the the US will support. CA invented the green movement. When the bottom of this abyss found, CA will be the state to lead the the nation out of this currently impossible situation. By the way I never mentioned the weather or the geography. 5th generation Californian
?!?!?! LIberalism is the thing that has killed CA. I lived in CA for three years - best place in the world to live....if you have the money - I didn't have the money at the time (moved out over 11 years ago). You have morons deciding that EVERYBODY should have certain services - regardless of citizenship - sorry, need to check the budget before you can do that. You have places like Bezerkley that are TOTALLY out of whack and not at all like any other city in the country - and I DON'T mean in a good way. Here is a great example of how screwed up CA is: I moved to CA - brought my car. The only thing CA checked on my "new" car was whether it passed enviro regulations - not whether it was safe or not. I could have driven down the road with jagged pieces of metal flying off and killing other motorists...so long as it passed the enviromental inspection, CA didn't care. I moved to TX - and got an immediate 9.6% pay increase - I didn't have to pay state income taxes!
I love Cali and I think it's a great place to visit, however I wouldn't care to live there permanently (although I wished I had lived there for a couple years when I was young and single). All that said, I travel usually 2-4x per year for work and I must admit that I've seen a decline in the quality of life that the average Californian lives. Particularly parts of LA, look like they've turned into a 3rd world country. Anyway, you still have very nice weather and some of the smartest people in the world. Now you just need another political revolution in order to clean up the mess that Sacramento has made in the past 20 years.
Excellent post. Funny how ALL of the people here on ET that continue to "bash" CALIFORNIA are conservative right-wingers that had absolutely NO PROBLEM at all watching George Bush appointee Pat Wood III, at FERC sit on his hands with his thumb up his arse while Enron "gamed" the power grid of the 6th LARGEST ECONOMY IN THE WORLD ( at the time ) during a Recession due to the de-regulation created by Texas Republican Phil Gramm and his Indiana buddies, Dick Lugar and Pete Fitzgerald in the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000. No, the right-wing morons on ET who love to take "pot-shots" at CALIFORNIA conveniently ignore how their own party "leaders" raped and screwed the Golden State! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodity_Futures_Modernization_Act_of_2000 How typical.
I don't see how you claim, "people are taking pot shots at California"... the state has the most industry, probably collects the most in individual income tax, and is still $40 Billion in deficit... now begging for a hand out. What's "pot shot" about decrying that?