Fifty years ago, California was considered by most of the country as a paradise — a literal slice of heaven. The weather was perfect, the people were bronzed and beautiful, the economy was booming, and the variety of landscapes — mountains, plains, shores, and even a desert — made the state an artist’s dream.
Fifty years ago, everybody wanted to move to California. Housing prices weren’t cheap — even back then — and with no such thing as public transportation, an automobile was absolutely necessary. Traffic was a nightmare, and getting around southern California’s freeway system was difficult.
But these were inconveniences, and placed on a scale next to the benefits of living in The Golden State, it was a no-brainer. It was no accident that “California Dreamin'” was the state’s anthem and the Beach Boys were the top pop group in the country.
It’s too easy, too pat to explain California’s decline into third-worldism as a product of liberal government alone. More to the point, California fell in love with excess — and not just excess government. Everything in California had to be the biggest, the most outrageous, the prettiest, and the sexiest. It was logical then to take fashionable liberal ideas from the East and make them California’s by taking the issues to the most extreme degree.
Environmentalism became a religion to the point of ludicrousness. “Criminal justice” became shorthand for thugs to game the system. The state began to act as an entity answerable only to itself.
The result was catastrophic. Much of the state has become, if not unlivable, far less of a “paradise” than it used to be. And the consequences of that reality are beginning to be experienced by a large number of Californians.
A recent survey by the Los Angeles Times and other non-profit groups discovered that 40% of Californians now want to move out of the state. And the desire to leave crosses all income brackets and social strata.
Although 70% of Californians enjoy living in the Golden State, about four in ten residents say they are now considering moving away, according to a new poll conducted by research firm Strategies 360.
The survey, published in partnership with the Los Angeles Times and a consortium of nonprofits, showed that financial concerns played a significant role in residents’ decision to potentially move elsewhere.
“Even if folks make the same income as they did even just three years ago, their sense of financial security has fallen dramatically,” Ben Winston, a political consultant for Strategies 360, told the Times.
Even those who make over $100,000 are starting to feel squeezed by inflation and a higher cost of living: Just 57% of people from high-earning households now say they feel financially comfortable, down from 77% in 2020.
The cost of living in California is 39% higher than the national average, and housing costs are double the national average, according to RentCafe.
The poll also revealed political polarization has had an effect on the deep-blue state, with 32% of conservatives very seriously considering moving and 27% somewhat seriously considering fleeing California.
Forty-seven percent of liberals say they have never considered leaving, compared with just 15% of conservatives.
Even a lot of Democrats don’t like living in a one-party state. That’s a sobering message that should be sent to Sacramento where supermajorities of Democrats play with people’s lives to satisfy their own lust to control others.
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