Californians -- Why live there if you are not wealthy or upper middle class?

[zinfamous]

misery loves company. I hope more of you miserable liberals move to California. It will have a cleansing effect on all the other States. Just think how wonderfully miserable you will be!! You can practice your "one up manship" and condescension on each other.

I only see one miserable person here....

 

[Steeplerot]

The funny thing about that picture is that the TransAmerica building would be 3-400 years old and survived a nuclear war by the time Starfleet builds their HQ there.

And there is no Transbay Tower

When it's finished it will dwarf the TA Pyramid building. (under construction like 4 blocks from my house)

Damn libural socialist commie San Francisco economy!

 

[PricklyPete]

I love San Francisco and much of Northern California. I visit Santa Cruze/San Jose about 1-2 times a year and Big Sur is probably my favorite place on earth. It is also host to my favorite marathon.

That being said, it is very crowded in places that have good opportunities and prohibitively expensive. Also, there are many elitest people in Northern California that seem to hate being American (ref. Steeplerot in this thread)... I do not enjoy that kind of company. They are the minority though and I would not be surprised if I eventually move to Santa Cruz (two of my best friends, who are for all intensive purposes brothers to me live there) when the opportunity arises.

 

[hal2kilo]

The problem with Austin is that it's surrounded by the rest if Texas.

Yep.

 

[Cr0nJ0b]

I grew up and now live in southern california. Crime has never been an issue for me...the town I grew up in never had a murder while I lived there. I think there was one a few years ago...but crime is almost non-existent. I work in Irvine, where I think crime is the lowest in the country.

Costs are high for living if you didn't get into the housing market a years back...they are coming down, but that's not an issue for me.

Food and other costs are comparable with the rest of the country.

Taxes are high, yes and I hate this.

But we have the beach.

Road are crowded at certain (many) times during the day.

but we have great skiing

gun laws are dumb

but we have yosemite and other great natural wonders like death valley.

and then we have state political system....

I can't really think of anything to counter that...

but I like the lifestyle and the people in general.

 

[MooseNSquirrel]

AB-32 kicks in next year in Calif. That will chase lots of business/tax payers/middles class out of town.

We need something like the Von Hoffmann Award that Andrew Sullivan gives out.

The Von Hoffmann Award is given for stunningly wrong political, social and cultural predictions.

 

[lothar]

People follow jobs to some degree, and my work is out here. Even if that weren't the case, I'm young, not broke, and have no family obligations as far as needing to provide for anyone. I'd much rather live in a fun place with lots going on, possibilities to meet more people, beautiful climate, etc., than move to Shithole, Missouri for a lower cost of living.

The funny thing is that Shithole, Missouri is getting Google Fiber.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

Karain nailed it. People live where their jobs are at. If you and your spouse had a 6 figure combined income, you could live like kings in some parts of the country. However, if you move to those areas, it's likely that you won't find the same availability of jobs.

That's true--but it's also true that a great many people have fungible jobs--teachers, janitors, nurses, etc.--jobs that are available and that can be performed anywhere. If you work in the computer industry then I can see why living in California would be compelling, but if not, why stay?

 

[WhipperSnapper]

Why do people live in a shit hole like Detroit for that matter? I was devastated to learn that you can't even really meet Robocop and get his autograph if you live there. So why do it? I have no clue, but people persist living there just the same.

They don't live in Detroit. They live in the suburbs of Detroit. In fact, one of the counties that borders Detroit (Oakland County) is one of the nation's wealthiest counties. It's also filled with hundreds of small and medium-sized lakes, which means that you can have a lake house. The people who actually live in Detroit are primarily the urban poor (who, as Glenn suggested, would probably be just as poor anyplace else).

 

[zinfamous]

I've worked in several refineries that weren't that far from SF.

haha, yeah. This was about 10 miles north of me last week