> In case it makes you feel any better, while California stinks in terms of quality of life at least it didn’t rank dead last in the overall rankings. We came in at No. 32 overall, although that’s well behind New Jersey (at No. 19), Florida (at No. 15), and Nebraska (at No. 7). Ouch.
> The bottom line? The state performed well in terms of its economy, coming in at No. 4 (hello, high tech boom) but it fared terribly in categories such as citizen opportunity (No. 46) and fiscal stability (No. 43) in addition to the dreaded quality-of-life assessment (that scarring No. 50). Of course, as anyone who has tried to buy a house in the Bay Area knows, fiscal instability is basically our motto at this point.
>The state performed well in terms of its economy, coming in at No. 4
This isn't surprising. The reality is California's good economy, relatively good school system, attractive West Coast appeal, and high influx of immigrants make California VERY competitive (i.e. overcrowded), which brings down the quality of life for all.
This is an end result of sorts of our global society. A California will always exist.
I agree that the headline of the article is a bit misleading. According to the US News ranking where this report gets its data from, California finished #32 overall. Given that, I don't disagree that California's quality of life is terrible. I would think that US News is aggregating this data based on the whole of California, and given that the homeless rate in California is among the highest and that tech constantly pushes up cost of living, it makes sense that California would be ranked so poorly overall. I would assume that most of HN is full of those working in tech, so while you may not personally see California as having poor quality of life in your own lives, that doesn't necessarily hold true for the majority of the state.
> On a per capita basis, California's GDP is not remarkable, and is significantly worse than some other States.
It's #5 among states, a little over 7% behind #1 Massachusetts, and over 20% ahead of the US as a whole, and over double #50 Mississippi.
> Having a large economy is a function of having a large population, it doesn't imply an exceptionally productive economy.
California has both a large population and, on a per capita basis, an exceptionally productive economy among US states. It's true it's abstractly possible for the former to substitute for the latter in aggregate output measures, but that's not really the case for CA.
>Nor is California like say Germany or France, where substantially lower GDP per capita (relative to the U.S.) is balanced by a robust safety net and ample public services. California has among the worst public schools in the country: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/economy/2018/02/08/geog.... Its public universities are quite expensive. It doesn't have a leg up in healthcare like say Massachusetts.
It's true the public schools are lackluster, but I'm not sure the same is true of public universities and healthcare. California universities have a great reputation and student debt is relatively low [0][1]. Uninsured rates aren't Massachusetts-low, but their health outcomes are comparable or better [2]. California has made headlines for being one of the few states to lower mortality. [3]
Choosing a 13 year old clearly reblogged article from an organization known as “24/7 Wall St.” (with a dot and all) as your source is an interesting way to provide a credible source showing the current opinion of everyone in the US regarding California. It’s not even a survey, which would have been obvious had you spent the time to actually look at it rather than cherry-pick the first result off Google which lined up with your opinion.
It’s especially ridiculous since that’s literally just one organization’s opinion on California.
And their opinion is solely based on 4 key indicators and nothing else. I’m not a data scientist but even I know that you can pretty easily find 4 key metrics which allow you to rank states in any way you choose.
If you were to actually look up the organization, you would see it’s just a random blog (not that it is at all surprising considering their name), and that their 2021 rankings had California solidly in the middle of the pack, not that it makes a difference considering how limited their methodology is.
If you look at quality of life indicators instead of economic strength, California certainly falls more than a bit but the red/blue divide grows even larger (1). From purely a quality of life standpoint, 8 of the best 10 are blue and 8 out of the worst 10 are red.
In the future, historians may likely mark the 2010 midterm elections as the end of the California era and the beginning of the Texas one. In one stunning stroke, amid a national conservative tide, California voters essentially ratified a political and regulatory regime that has left much of the state unemployed and many others looking for the exits.
California has drifted far away from the place that John Gunther described in 1946 as "the most spectacular and most diversified American state...so ripe, golden." Instead of a role model, California has become a cautionary tale of mismanagement of what by all rights should be the country’s most prosperous big state. Its poverty rate is at least two points above the national average; its unemployment rate nearly three points above the national average.
Chief Exec Mag Rankings:
Top 5: TX, NC, TN, VA, NV
Bottom 5: MA, NJ, MI, NY, CA
On a list of the best public schools in the US, half are located in California. There are 49 other states.
The DMV has counterparts in every state. If you have an appointment or visit a less-busy office, you can be in and out in under half an hour once every few years.
California has more miles of roads than any other state except for Texas, and our roads get used by millions more people than the Texas roads do. More use = more wear and tear.
Failing dams. The Oroville dam failed because it was damaged by a storm. While it was being repaired, historic levels of monsoon rains flooded the reservoir behind it, requiring the use of the spillway at volumes it was not designed to handle. However, subsequent investigations revealed that the problem was not as bad as feared due to features of the dam dating back to its construction that had been forgotten in the interrim.
Poor water supply. Citation needed. LA has plenty of water. SF's source of water is so pure it doesn't even need to filter it. If we weren't exporting so much alfalfa and almonds, we wouldn't have a water crisis in the state. Literally 80% of California's water supply goes to agricultural needs (40% of California's total water). Those farmers are protected by a labyrinth of state and federal laws, centuries-old contracts, and interstate compacts.
One party rule has been a good thing for California. We have a surplus. Growing business, growing tourism, lower unemployment, lower crime.
Over regulated housing market. Citation needed. Every part of California that isn't the Bay Area is building housing just fine. (LA is on track to build several hundred thousand new units of housing from 2015 through 2020.) The problem is that so many people want to live in California that we can't keep up--there simply aren't the construction workers to build the houses/condos/apartments that we need to build to keep up with demand.
HSR. Yes, we have this thing.
Unfunded pensions. True, we have $333 billion of unfunded pension liabilities. But we can pay 69% of promised benefits, and unlike other states, California's public pensions can be reduced by legislative action, so the problem is one of political unwillingness rather than an actual crisis. (And you better believe that if a politician is faced with increasing taxes versus cutting pensions, they're going to cut pensions.)
It’s not an attack on you, or a value judgement about California.
The index ranks the state lower than the rest of the country. I read the definition and I’m speculating why that is. You’re saying “yeah, well, we’re awesome.” Sure? The state is obviously very rich. A technical indicator is not destiny.
> Murder rates are higher in Republican-led states
With the highest murder rates being in the Democrat controlled cities in the otherwise Republican State. Again, most of the country is wide open spaces with mostly friendly people.
The period of the Pandemic & lockdown also had a high increase in violence.
> People are leaving California largely because (1) they’ve made out well from the economic success of the state and can live luxuriously elsewhere on their savings, or (2) they haven’t participated in the economic success, and are squeezed out by the effect that success has on in-state prices.
So if you make money in California, the great weather, social networks, & the business opportunities are not enough to offset the downsides?
If you don't make enough money in California, the cost of living is higher than other states.
California is a large state. Why is the cost of living, including the rural areas, so high there?
How does the Purchasing Parity in California compare to other states?
California has aspects of it that do well economically, overall its situation is quite dismal. It boasts the COLA adjusted highest poverty rate in the country. Worse than Mississippi, West Virginia or Alabama.
> In case it makes you feel any better, while California stinks in terms of quality of life at least it didn’t rank dead last in the overall rankings. We came in at No. 32 overall, although that’s well behind New Jersey (at No. 19), Florida (at No. 15), and Nebraska (at No. 7). Ouch.
> The bottom line? The state performed well in terms of its economy, coming in at No. 4 (hello, high tech boom) but it fared terribly in categories such as citizen opportunity (No. 46) and fiscal stability (No. 43) in addition to the dreaded quality-of-life assessment (that scarring No. 50). Of course, as anyone who has tried to buy a house in the Bay Area knows, fiscal instability is basically our motto at this point.
I think it's also interesting that Mississippi, Arkansas, and New Mexico were in the top 10 for "quality of life," but bottom 10 overall: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rankings
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