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There is one crucial difference. CA is a decade ahead of the rest of the United States in terms of both the lifestyle it offers and social problems it grapples with. In lifestyle, California is simply unmatched in the United States. It offers a level of abundance in produce that is just unheard of anywhere in the world. It's only natural given that California has some of the most fertile land in the world and produces roughly 30-40% of the US's fruit and vegetable output. The moderate Mediterranean weather is really great in the Bay Area, getting even better in Southern California with a large number of sunny days, low humidity, and mild temperatures for much of the year. The variety and proximity of natural beauty, whether it be pristine beaches, fragrant oak and cedar forests, majestic sequoias, towering edifices of rock and ice in the Sierras, the picturesque and barren Mojave desert or strangely lunar Mono Lake and Inyo National Forest, is simply unparalleled anywhere else. Drive 15 minutes out of a bustling metropolitan area, and you will find plenty of nature trails in breathtaking settings. In terms of social problems, their scale just boggles the mind. The persistent homelessness that is the result of other states dumping their homeless and the complete heartlessness of the liberal coastal elites when it comes to housing; the eye-watering taxation and rampant mismanagement of revenues (and rampant corruption leading to brazen giveaways to public employees) leading to boom-and-bust budgets that swing with the fortunes of the wealthiest dozen Californians (literally); the widespread environmental degradation resulting from toxic industries including mining and semiconductors; permanently depleted water tables in the central valley because of harmful cash crops such as Alfalfa and almonds; and encroachment upon dry chaparral habitats by housing development and sprawl, not to mention the resulting forest fires. On top of all this, there is a massive underclass of internal and external migrants who have zero upward mobility because of the permanently high costs of living (a feature of California since at least the Gold Rush) and find themselves permanently on the margins. The economic dynamism of the state is shrinking rapidly and businesses are falling over themselves moving to friendlier locales. The politics is a monoculture, with one party ruling unchallenged for decades, thus causing deeply entrenched corruption and a genuine lack of ideas (one of CA's senators is 88 years old. Biden is a spring chicken in comparison). You would be forgiven if you thought the rest of the US is free of these problems: they will soon be the problem of the rest of the US; California is just on the leading edge, that's all. |