What state did you move to? If you care to not answer, it's cool. Just curious what state you would consider, after leaving California. Yes, the pols in CA have destroyed some important reasons to live there. Lots of problems. There's no excuse for what they have done to a great state.
Wrong again my friend. California does NOT collect the most in individual income tax per capita, or as a % of income. It ranks 7th and 5th in the Nation using those metrics as of 2006. I really wish you would be able to present FACTUAL DATA to support your claims, rather than post with such grandiose claims that have strong political undertones. If you ever did present FACTUAL DATA to support your claims, your posts would be much more valuable to a discussion and debate.
I never said I moved someplace better. ;-) I work on Wall St. now, but NYC is run the same way CA is. My quality of life here got WORSE, but I try to make up for it mentally by saying I'll learn things here that'll allow me to leave for some place better, like the middle of nowhere in Wyoming, Kansas, or Nebraska. I like how Kansas is flat as a pancake and you can see for miles and miles on no one will bother you. Of course, Kansas is broke. So that leaves Wyoming and Nebraska. Truth be told, I like what BATS did. Co'lod their servers in NYC, but run all their ops in like Kansas or something.
Rather a childish way to avoid addressing his point IMO. And to your point of blaming Bush and Enron, you're right they're all idiots no matter which party. So, what is your specific idea on how to avoid such messes? I'm seriously interested in your considered opinion. Stosh
Agree. I've been all over the world. I always come back to California. I recently spent a couple of years at a hedge fund in Chicago and hated everything except the food and some of the european girls running around. In California everywhere you look there are large geographic features in the distance. In Illinois your entire world is a tree-line about 500 meters away. You live in a small bubble that is right around you and can't see anything in the distance except maybe a water tower. It was hard to believe that people live their whole lives like that. There is something wrong with a place that has a waffle-house on every corner. I could not wait to get back to California. I won't be trying to live anywhere else. I'm not happy about the budget but its not worth living somewhere else. Where I live there is 360 days of sunshine per year. We freak out if there is a single cloud in the sky. People start putting sweaters on when it is 65 degrees. I can surf, sail, cycle, ski, snorkel and scuba within 90 minutes of here. I fly gliders out of a field that is 15 minutes away. Average humdity here is 10%. Frankly I'll just sit tight and let the rest of the country pay for our problems. Who do you think is going to pay for the high speed train from Disneyland to Las Vegas?
One problem CA has, is that their tax base in fairly narrow....a relatively small percentage of people pay the bulk of taxes. The practical effect is that you do great when the economy is rolling (read: dot com, IT boom), but it magnifies a downturn also. This is a problem facing the US as a whole, imo. The steps CA has taken over the past few weeks will probaly make the downturn last longer than it should.
As someone that spent 10 years in NYC and another 4 in CT, I have no desire to ever leave California again . . . and I don't miss the NY metro area one bit. I don't miss the noise, the crowds, the expense, the taxes, the long drives in traffic to get in/out of town on the weekends, and certainly not the long, cold, dreary Winters and super short Springs with the usual hot and HUMID Summer where a weekend thunderstorm is more often not par for the course, rather than the exception. Fall is the best season, but again, it is way too short for my taste. The only place that I really miss is Newport, Rhode Island. Now that is a small piece of Heaven on Earth! But at the end of the day, California has such a diversity of cuisine, geography, recreation, etc. that it really is hard to beat!
In case you haven't noticed, his thread's point (and title) was about SOCIALISM in the USSA and how California was providing a "roadmap" for it. Yet, for some strange reason all he does is make "casual" and rather ignorant comments about taxation in California which were easily disproven. Does Gnome speak to the state employee pension expense in the State? How about the Feds and how they refuse to deal with immigration, leaving the financial burden of social welfare entitlements and medical programs in states like California and Arizona to State governments and their budget? As for what I would do at this point and time to offer growth to an Economy in which the consumer is completely "underwater" . . . It has already been offered and posted on several occasions: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=2316471&highlight=Manufacturing#post2316471
A Philly Main Line friend of mine once said if you have tax problems...then make more money. Smartest words ever uttered.
I just went to get a GYRO down the street. No one this planet or the next can claim the type hotties that live and walk in this neighborhood. It's worth the extra marginal tax.