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California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

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Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#111
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being from Chicago I say it's a good thing to pay down the pension obligations. Pension obligations can cause a lot of problems in the future. Although I don't believe governments should be growing their budgets aggressively, squaring gov obligations is a good thing.

Why do government pensions even exist anymore? There is absolutely no reason for them and they need to go. The government can pay a reasonable salary if they wanted skilled workers.

> The government can pay a reasonable salary if they wanted skilled workers.

Government doesn't even pay a reasonable salary + benefits for many positions including pensions, in overall monetary value, and the public and politicians aren't generally interested in fixing that.

Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#112
post #88
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I move around and travel a lot for work - I've lived in 4 states in the last 2 years (CO, WA, CA, TX) - and one of the universal things across all the midwest and west coast that I've found is that while most people like the weather/scenery in California EVERYONE hates people from California, except for the people in California. I've heard the saying "California would be great if it wasn't for the people" in literall…

Curious about this, what do they hate about Californians? I mean California is very diverse. The main cites (Bay and LA) are very liberal but the restof CA is pretty right leaning. So I imagine you get pretty much every kind of person from California and it would be hard to hate all of them.

When I moved from San Francisco to the Denver area about 10 years ago, the attitude I picked up on wasn't so much personal hatred as it was, "Oh great, another Californian moving here to make our freeways more crowded and drive up the cost of everything".

Sure, there are significant cultural and political deltas, but I think a lot of the disgust for Californians moving to other states is just the simple fact that people generally don't like change in the form of "outsiders" flooding "their" state and threatening the status quo.

Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#113
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jobs and day trips yes. Schools, no. Public schools are among the worst funded and least achieving. Good schools, go to Mass (with also good day trips, but harsh winters).

South FL has some truly awful schools; that was my comparison.

I just moved back here. I can confirm. Now looking for an exit strategy.

Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#114
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being from Chicago I say it's a good thing to pay down the pension obligations. Pension obligations can cause a lot of problems in the future. Although I don't believe governments should be growing their budgets aggressively, squaring gov obligations is a good thing.

Why do government pensions even exist anymore? There is absolutely no reason for them and they need to go. The government can pay a reasonable salary if they wanted skilled workers.

Also, keep in mind, because of pensions most government workers don't get social security when they retire. My mother, a public school teacher for 20 years, only lives on her pension.

Now, if we think government employees should pay into and get social security when they retired thats a debate that might be worthwhile to have. However, in the meantime the trade off has been lower salary and no social security in the public sector vs private sector but you do get a pension in the end.

Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But the biggest is that the people are truly interested in intellectual matters in a way that was not extant in the other places I've lived. That seems like it used to be true more than it is now. I live in Austin, and you can't go to a downtown coffee shop without hearing a spirited discussion about programming languages, frameworks or even conversion rates (I heard that last one standing in line at a taco place t…

The conversations are on a different level though. In a secondary tech market you'll hear CoffeeScript vs. JavaScript, Laravel vs Rails or whatever. In the Bay Area, and also in Cambridge, the discussion might be about compiler architecture or reverse engineering.

That's some serious next level snobbery. Let me guess where you live.

Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#117
post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

South FL has some truly awful schools; that was my comparison.

I just moved back here. I can confirm. Now looking for an exit strategy.

Looking to get out as well, Broward/Miami area is overcrowded and pricey, not to mention poorly educated. Lucky enough to work for a company that will allow me to go remote - can anyone recommend a place on the east coast? (preferably warm climate)

Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#118
post #28

I spent most of my childhood in California. Real estate is and always has been the number one industry in the state. The majority of my childhood friends' wealth seems to derive from houses their families bought in the early 80s or earlier. Prices have benefited from a stable of one trick ponies - fixed low property taxes (prop 13), massive population growth (net domestic migration is now negative), job growth from t…

Real estate as a driver of the CA economy goes at least as far back as the Homestead Acts and the Reclamation Act.

Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#119
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jobs and day trips yes. Schools, no. Public schools are among the worst funded and least achieving. Good schools, go to Mass (with also good day trips, but harsh winters).

South FL has some truly awful schools; that was my comparison.

You can do magnet programs there though. I went to school in Tampa. In general the public schools were awesome, but the magnet programs were absolutely incredible.

Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#120
post #117
post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just moved back here. I can confirm. Now looking for an exit strategy.

Looking to get out as well, Broward/Miami area is overcrowded and pricey, not to mention poorly educated. Lucky enough to work for a company that will allow me to go remote - can anyone recommend a place on the east coast? (preferably warm climate)

Blacksburg Virginia?
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