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California population declines for first time in more than a century

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271–280 of 543 posts

Re: California population declines for first time in more than a century

#271
Cali is beautiful, but unfortunately I can’t see myself living there in the future. I wish I could since it’s the state I grew up in, but unless I win the lottery or the equivalent, I don’t see that happening anytime soon.

Building more housing won’t help either; it’ll just get bought by Chinese investors.

Re: California population declines for first time in more than a century

#272
post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can we pay more taxes please? I’m serious.

Yes, in many jurisdictions voluntary contributions are accepted. I assume you've already explored this option?

I am not interested as I don’t think voluntary contributions can change anything. This argument goes both ways: why not lowering taxes since people can just donate instead? The next thing you know you don’t have hospitals, roads, police, firemen, army, education, healthcare, oops

Re: California population declines for first time in more than a century

#273

I feel like it's only going to get worse. California has a good number of problems: housing costs, traffic, wildfires, homelessness, ... and the high tax rate you pay for the privilege of enjoying them. But I haven't seen California take meaningful steps to solve any of these. We're still in the stage of "problems are getting worse", and any solutions will take a long time to materialize. I grew up in California. It'…

Most of California's problems go back to lack of housing and opposition to building more. Everyone wants to live in Cali for nice weather and jobs. If you stop people from building more housing your property value just keeps rising. Property costs are high because NIMBY blocking denser housing. Traffic is bad because housing density is too low for the population. Homelessness is bad because houses are too expensive.…

NIMBYism regarding more housing really only pertains to metropolitan/urban areas. How come the rest of the state can’t build housing consummate to the demand?

Re: California population declines for first time in more than a century

#274
post #95

I'm a PhD student at Caltech. I'd love to stay in CA and become a prof at one of the world-renown universities in the state. The cost for a nice house is > $800K in all of the cities hosting these universities; on top of that, the state income tax on a prof's salary is 9-10%. CA is basically telling me (and millions of other millennials) that we are not wanted here.

I'm a lifelong Californian whose lived in Santa Cruz County for nearly nine out of the past 11 years, and as someone who wants to become a CS professor at a teaching university one day, I feel the exact same way. I love California and I don't want to leave the state. However, the housing prices signal to me that if I want to buy a house, I need to have a very high income and maintain it during the length of a 30-year…

Cause of problem: Missing Middle Housing. Not everyone needs the concrete beehives or the single-family-home. But there's been very little built in-between in recent decades. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_middle_housing

I could live in very little space. Not into owning a lotta stuff, entertaining crowds. 15x25 is more than enough. Noone's building cottages these days. Let alone on nice streets with trees, away from traffic, walkable. A couple of US cities have opened that up. Neither is in CA. My family of 4 was once quite comfortable in one apt. in a quadplex. We did this to ourselves, and invested in a lot of infrastructure to be locked into.

Re: California population declines for first time in more than a century

#275

I feel like it's only going to get worse. California has a good number of problems: housing costs, traffic, wildfires, homelessness, ... and the high tax rate you pay for the privilege of enjoying them. But I haven't seen California take meaningful steps to solve any of these. We're still in the stage of "problems are getting worse", and any solutions will take a long time to materialize. I grew up in California. It'…

Most of California's problems go back to lack of housing and opposition to building more. Everyone wants to live in Cali for nice weather and jobs. If you stop people from building more housing your property value just keeps rising. Property costs are high because NIMBY blocking denser housing. Traffic is bad because housing density is too low for the population. Homelessness is bad because houses are too expensive.…

But the funny thing is, the California "countryside" is languishing because of a lack of people/jobs

But instead of going there people prefer the big established cities elsewhere

Re: California population declines for first time in more than a century

#276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just wondering: would you know the total tax and fees for such a salary. (there is probably federal tax etc). I am not to familiar with the US system.

There are various calculators you can find on Google. This is the one I used to get the numbers above: https://smartasset.com/taxes/california-tax-calculator#rSyRW...

Thanks. Medical insurance paid by company? What is a normal amount people put in a retirement plan? Is that contribution tax deductible? If it is say like 20%, it seems easily 50% of your income are acounted for.

Re: California population declines for first time in more than a century

#277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are various calculators you can find on Google. This is the one I used to get the numbers above: https://smartasset.com/taxes/california-tax-calculator#rSyRW...

Thanks. Medical insurance paid by company? What is a normal amount people put in a retirement plan? Is that contribution tax deductible? If it is say like 20%, it seems easily 50% of your income are acounted for.

401ks are pretax, so you should max those out. Health premiums are fairly reasonable, I paid about $300/month when I was living in LA, that was just the employee side, the employee side was a lot more probably.

None of that is unique to California. Your overall tax burden in California will be about one percent higher than Texas, according to https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-highest-lowest-tax-bur..., though Californians typically lay spot more taxes because they make more money.

Re: California population declines for first time in more than a century

#278

I feel like it's only going to get worse. California has a good number of problems: housing costs, traffic, wildfires, homelessness, ... and the high tax rate you pay for the privilege of enjoying them. But I haven't seen California take meaningful steps to solve any of these. We're still in the stage of "problems are getting worse", and any solutions will take a long time to materialize. I grew up in California. It'…

"But I haven't seen California take meaningful steps to solve any of these"

Yeah, the thing is there are political and regulatory efforts to deal with these, but most people don't hear/read about them, unless they are super wonky.

So the people who tend to get involved are the wealthy people who benefit financially from the outcome, and the occasional non profit. The latter is where you can actually make an impact for good.

Check out https://cayimby.org/ and take part in their campaigns/petitions, and tell your friends to do so.

They have a great track record in terms of housing bills, and an associated organization that is suing communities that are blocking affordable housing.

Re: California population declines for first time in more than a century

#279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not from there or live there (FL or CA) but from the outside looking in, CA is in crisis whether it knows it or not. It’s sick right now but I hope it can get better. FL seems happy.

> FL seems happy. Happily full of voters that collect tons of government aid via Medicare, Social Security, and National Flood Insurance Program, and yet happy to decry government help for anyone else. Let me know when FL has parental leave or any half decent employment laws that help those at the bottom.

Florida is a net payer. California is a net beneficiary even though they have so many high end jobs. This includes medicare, social security etc.

https://www.businessinsider.com/federal-taxes-federal-servic...

Re: California population declines for first time in more than a century

#280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Echoing others Atlanta is pretty much exactly what you are asking for. I dont think that will stay true for much longer with google and microsofts announced investments there however.

Aren't Californians boycotting Georgia over voting laws?

Not all of us, probably?
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