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Job growth is booming across the U.S. but not in California. Here's why

latimes.com

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Re: Job growth is booming across the U.S. but not in California. Here's why

#21

Post by ChuckMcM »

bugglebeetle wrote: post #2

> “The reason why Texas and Florida are doing well and California isn’t, it’s the cost of housing and high taxes,” said Sung Won Sohn, an economist at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. “We have lost a lot of small businesses.” This former is the crux of the problem: California entered into a suicide pact with real estate speculators in the 70s, from which it seems entirely unwilling to extricate itself. It’…

You may find this web site enlightening, I certainly did (https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/state/tax-burden-by-state...) This paragraph in particular for me

Since we present tax burdens as a share of income as a relative ranking of the 50 states, slight changes in taxes or income can translate into seemingly dramatic shifts in rank. For example, Oklahoma (10th) and Ohio (24th) only differ in burden by just over one percentage point. Tax revenue growth during the pandemic, however, has not only increased overall tax burdens but also expanded variance among states. In our last pre-pandemic analysis, the 20 middle-ranked states differed by less than a percentage point on effective rate, but in 2022, the difference between New Hampshire (16th) and Maryland (35th) is 1.8 percentage points. While burdens are clustered in the center of the distribution, states at the top and bottom can have substantially different burden percentages: the state with the highest burden, New York, has a burden percentage of 15.9 percent, while the state with the lowest burden, Alaska, has a burden percentage of 4.6 percent.

Re: Job growth is booming across the U.S. but not in California. Here's why

#22

Post by jajko »

SamoyedFurFluff wrote: post #4
bugglebeetle wrote: post #2

> “The reason why Texas and Florida are doing well and California isn’t, it’s the cost of housing and high taxes,” said Sung Won Sohn, an economist at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. “We have lost a lot of small businesses.” This former is the crux of the problem: California entered into a suicide pact with real estate speculators in the 70s, from which it seems entirely unwilling to extricate itself. It’…

This doesn’t quite ring true for me in Florida at least. Most recently, floridas cost of housing is raising ridiculously due to home insurance, with several homes refusing to be insured by anyone for any price. On top of that, assessments on condos and other buildings are raising the costs of high rises as well due to government regulations them to get inspected and implement necessary repairs (after HOAs and condos…

Isn't Florida often hammered by hurricanes? On top of rising sea levels. Compare it to more desert-like California (which has earthquakes but maybe once a century, which then gets some vague misrepresentation in insurance risk calculations).

Insurances generally want your money unless stuff is just too risky. But some folks are eager to build real estate literally on top of dynamite factory if that land would be cheap enough.

So, why are those houses un-insurable is a good question for a start.

Also, OP writes their observation specifically about California.

Re: Job growth is booming across the U.S. but not in California. Here's why

#23

Post by newZWhoDis »

7thaccount wrote: post #3
bugglebeetle wrote: post #2

> “The reason why Texas and Florida are doing well and California isn’t, it’s the cost of housing and high taxes,” said Sung Won Sohn, an economist at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. “We have lost a lot of small businesses.” This former is the crux of the problem: California entered into a suicide pact with real estate speculators in the 70s, from which it seems entirely unwilling to extricate itself. It’…

I've had several offers to work in startups in California that don't do remote. Instead of just saying no outright I ask the HR person where the office is or look it up. It's usually near Silicon Valley and I have to explain that they'd have to pay me CEO pay to make up for the increase in living/home expenses. I mean...$1.5M to get a home similar to what I paid $150k for not that long ago is hard to justify.

Exactly. Most of California is a huge QoL downgrade so the pay needs to be bonkers to compensate.

Re: Job growth is booming across the U.S. but not in California. Here's why

#24

Post by gotoeleven »

readyman wrote: post #17
unquietwiki wrote: post #10

Living in SoCal still offers distinct advantages in terms of civil rights, a social safety net, and access to a vast number of small and large businesses (for both work and services). The entry-level job thing is compounded by requirements for degrees and experience that fully expect folks to down-skill to lower-wage roles. One factor that looms large is the gig economy: Uber/Lyft/DoorDash/etc. They've become a lynch…

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Re: Job growth is booming across the U.S. but not in California. Here's why

#25

Post by newZWhoDis »

jjtheblunt wrote: post #18
7thaccount wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had several offers to work in startups in California that don't do remote. Instead of just saying no outright I ask the HR person where the office is or look it up. It's usually near Silicon Valley and I have to explain that they'd have to pay me CEO pay to make up for the increase in living/home expenses. I mean...$1.5M to get a home similar to what I paid $150k for not that long ago is hard to justify.

Yep. I had for years a fantastic job in one of the inner engineering groups at Apple, loved it, loved the coworkers, the culture, and earned and saved very well, which is the point in mentioning this. but I quit to move far away eventually because I obstinately refused to pay exorbitant real estate prices to get a non shitty home. Sadly I could understand how folks from outside the US have less perspective on what a…

Exactly, and it’s not just the prices it’s the taxes. Sure you make more but you lose a huge % of that and what’s left over goes to insane prices, cost of labor, etc.

Re: Job growth is booming across the U.S. but not in California. Here's why

#29

Post by leetcrew »

whatshisface wrote: post #20
unquietwiki wrote: post #10

Living in SoCal still offers distinct advantages in terms of civil rights, a social safety net, and access to a vast number of small and large businesses (for both work and services). The entry-level job thing is compounded by requirements for degrees and experience that fully expect folks to down-skill to lower-wage roles. One factor that looms large is the gig economy: Uber/Lyft/DoorDash/etc. They've become a lynch…

Not being beaten up by police is part of your rights, but freely deciding how you want to work with someone else, and not being forced into the gig economy, is a right too. Every state seems to have certain coalitions with way too much power, and in California it's exercised whenever well-established interests can rephrase something that benefits them in economically leftist language: "Let's all raise the wages of pi…

> having laws passed that force a pizza parlor manager to turn their drivers into unemployed app users

this sounds like an exaggeration, but I'm not familiar with the law you're referencing. what exactly are you talking about?

Re: Job growth is booming across the U.S. but not in California. Here's why

#30

Post by readyman »

api wrote: post #11
ramesh31 wrote: post #7

California is full, plain and simple. The people who live there and control the land have decided so, both implicitly and explicitly.

I realized after a while of living there that California is run as a real estate cartel. Land owners who bought when the state was cheap own it, and everyone who bought later is beholden and locked in with golden handcuffs to the high price environment they created. I call it a cartel because the scarcity is 100% a policy choice. Density is not high, public transit is awful, and there is a ton of land left to develop…

>California is run as a real estate cartel

Literally the political power that got Tesla off the ground (with fed funding) to save real estate prices in the San Bernadino Valley, LA, etc.

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