I just want to say. If you do not know something, admit your ignorance, learn, and become a wise man for the rest of your life. Else you chose to remain what you were at the start. If you can argue back and forth the way you did, I pretty sure you can find where you want to be.
I have no idea what you are talking about. Iāve been consistent but am at least intellectually honest enough to acknowledge that:
a.) California is not perfect
b.) I choose to live here for the fantastic opportunities this area provides
You on the other hand claim that California is in terminal decline yet you choose to live here and wonāt say where you would go that is better.
Additionally, arenāt you the guy that admitted that you made bad investment decisions and got taken to the cleaners? Are you sure that isnāt coloring your view on this topic?
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I still say that Politics of California is on terminal decline. For all the intellectual honesty and all other good things, You have not produce any evidence that it is not.
Like @DoctorOcho I never claimed California is perfect. Didnāt I end my comments by noting the number one problem of California: its housing crisis?
Thatās why I keep saying we need to look at it in a holistic way. California has its share of problems, but it also offers wonderful opportunities no other places offer and has strength no other places have.
People who still choose to live here, people who have most of their assets tied up here, have concluded that despite all its problems, California is still the place to be. That is if they are being honest with themselves.
For some reason you keep coming to housing problem. Giving shelter to everyone who wants to live in California should not the problem of the state. Nor the Californians carry any burden of providing housing and a job to everyone who wants to be there. That is a personal issue. If one cannot afford,. one can leave where one can find a job and house. Homelessness is a lifestyle problem.
That said, when the state (like that of California and others) use the authority vested in it to confiscate all or part of your wealth, income, and freedom so that it can address one special interest group or the other, it becomes a problem. And that is a political problem (not an economic one). That will eventually kill the state, if it is not addressed before it happens.
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California and Bay Area are so bad Harvard Business School graduates keep coming here:
We now employ 20% of their graduates. The only other region with more is NYC, another hellhole according to Fox News.
https://www.hbs.edu/recruiting/data/Pages/location-details.aspx?view=usa&loc=US+West#map
Where do the other 80% go. The way it is being painted here, lot more than just 20% graduates should be coming to CA.
Take a guess. Maybe they are all in Texas and Indiana?
Neither of us can prove what is going to happen.
Iād point to the last forty years of growth and Californiaās resilience through several difficult periods including the dot-com bust and the financial crisis. Iād also make the argument that technology has not fully transformed industries like health, automotive, energy, finance, etc. A good argument against this line of thinking is to point to Disney+ and the Ford Mach-E. Maybe old school companies are building enough tech competency to navigate disruption. Not sure I buy it but itās at least a legit argument.
Someone compared the Bay Area to Detroit in the late 70s. Thatās a fair argument. Iād argue we are much earlier on. I will take our problems over anyone elseās. And I would still love to hear where people would go for similar opportunity.
Seattle and Austin are both great cities. Seattle especially is attractive for a lot of reasons. But they arenāt growing at the expense of the Bay Area as far as I can tell. All three areas are growing and thatās as it should be because tech isnāt done yet.
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I think this time you genuinely tried to answer my question. But, you still returned back to technology and economy. I have no argument with what you have to say. But, I am more concerned about the politics of the state that is turning confiscatory with each passing day. Not a week or month passes when I do not hear one rule, law, proposition, that makes California less free or decreases quality of life. That is not good.
What is the point of living in a cage made up of gold. At the end of the day it is still a cage. It locks you in and takes away your freedom.
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Define freedom.
Does freedom mean the ability to buy a nice house without taking financial risk?
Does freedom mean low taxes?
Does freedom mean having good schools available no matter where you live?
To me freedom is opportunity to work your tail off and potentially do very well financially. I canāt tell you how many high school dropouts I know who loved to code, managed to build something great, and are set for life. That is freedom to me.
There are no guarantees. But based on housing prices and traffic around here, it sure seems like a lot of people are gunning for that kind of opportunity.
@manch There is a city like this 
that is currently invaded 
by ex-Californians gradually changing it to 7x7 
Congrats for moving to the new San Francisco. It will do great if it follow SFās path.
@manch Learn to be as objective as @DoctorOcho 
Is the main reason why I drop the plan to buy one more property in BARE. Now holding my breath as to what to do next.
This whole thread cracks me up. Haters gonna hate. Those that donāt like living in CA or canāt hang (because letās face it ā this is where a lot of the action is if you intend to innovate) can and should move elsewhere.
So much of the negativity is from folks who canāt afford the life they want to live here (but feel entitled to), and hence move(d) elsewhere. The hating becomes a way to rationalize their decision.
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You gonna run for office?
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Iāll give you just one example. Having to fight with San Mateo Co. for months over permission to cut down a fir tree on my own property which had at least a 7% lean straight at my house.
I had a second home built here in AZ last year. From the planning to getting handed the keys it took less time than getting permission to chop down that tree. I had a neighbor back in La Honda who gave up on building a granny unit AFTER spending $30,000 in fees. The process was just impossible. BTW La Hondaās only store closed last week. Couldnāt deal with county taxes and fees. So a town and surroudings of 4000 people is now left with a bar, a church and a post office. The little town I moved to has about the same number of people and 60 businesses, including a dozen places to eat, because municipalities donāt make it impossible to run a small business here.
And this is to say nothing of all the fun toys you can have here that you canāt have in CA. And the rgiht to do as you please on your own property that you paid for. I could on about the superior infrastructure, lack of traffic jams even in densely populated areas like Phoenix and far better levels of government service the average citizen receives despite paying far less in taxes but you asked about freedom so I stuck to that.
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Running for the office is not the only way to make a difference.
Affordability was never the problem. The politics is. The confiscatory policies of the state that I hate hardly matters to those who do not have any thing of value that can be confiscated.
Thanks. These are the good questions. But you are not there yet.
My boss has given freedom to my coworker to work 16 hours a day. Salaryā¦ not so much. It is like saying a bird in cage has freedom to sing as much it likes.