Dear California, I'm Dumping You (Sacramento, Orange: rent, car insurance, homes)

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by jc76

So when the going gets tough... the tough leave state??? That's a pretty noble thing to do. (sarcasm) To leave state because you hate the weather is one thing, the weather will never change. But to leave because the state is in a slump after 50 years seems like she is just taking the easy way out. Not worthy of being published, but cute in a 2nd grade way.

Hmmmm! Is it "acceptable" to be leaving the state because it appears to be circling the drain and some of us don't have the desire or recovery time to go down with the ship no matter how noble that appears to be?

Doesn't really matter to us. Doin' it anyhow but just thought I'd ask for sake of argument. This attitude of reviling those of us natives who are leaving is reminiscent of the misplaced confidence of a certain long-haired cavalry general (actually, he was just a Lt. Col.) from 1876.

[18Montclair]

Originally Posted by NewToCA

Hasta la vista, Candice. Don't let the door hit you on the...

Exactly. Ciao!

[ehcsrop]

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

Hmmmm! Is it "acceptable" to be leaving the state because it appears to be circling the drain and some of us don't have the desire or recovery time to go down with the ship no matter how noble that appears to be?

Doesn't really matter to us. Doin' it anyhow but just thought I'd ask for sake of argument. This attitude of reviling those of us natives who are leaving is reminiscent of the misplaced confidence of a certain long-haired cavalry general (actually, he was just a Lt. Col.) from 1876.

A point well made. But, if you leave, it may not be too easy to come back. That's been proven. However, if you're leaving as in being retired, then you won't be coming back for the high wages, etc., correct?

Case in point: I left during the last recession and made so little money in comparison that part time work in CA looked good. I don't have time to give all the statistics, but let's just say people in my line of work made elsewhere 1/3 of what I could easily make here.

Sure, houses are more expensive, but a quart of milk costs the same everywhere. You get the drift.

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by ehcsrop

A point well made. But, if you leave, it may not be too easy to come back. That's been proven. However, if you're leaving as in being retired, then you won't be coming back for the high wages, etc., correct?

Case in point: I left during the last recession and made so little money in comparison that part time work in CA looked good. I don't have time to give all the statistics, but let's just say people in my line of work made elsewhere 1/3 of what I could easily make here.

Sure, houses are more expensive, but a quart of milk costs the same everywhere. You get the drift.

Retired and not returning. My children and grandchildren are scattered literally from coast-to-coast so living in mid-America has its advantages; financially as well. No need for a job and in CA we can't afford a retirement home on the banks of a large lake with an 800 mile shoreline like the one we just purchased.

If you have to work and earn enough to get ahead, CA is still golden in that respect!

[Quatermass]

Originally Posted by jc76

To leave state because you hate the weather is one thing, the weather will never change. But to leave because the state is in a slump after 50 years seems like she is just taking the easy way out.

Granted that the author is a fool trying to blame California for the fact she's in an industry that is dying everywhere, but CA is not in a "slump" so much as a long-term decline. The state has gone through slumps and rebounds within the context of that decline for the last thirty years or so, but the overall trend has been steadily downward and any success the state has in the foreseeable future will be in spite of itself. CA has not had a sound economic foundation for quite some time, and has lived and died on bubble economies for at least a decade. I don't see that changing.

Not that the dingbat author of this piece understands any of this; she thinks Prop 13 is the source of all California's woes. (She probably also thinks that the newspapers can come roaring back by adopting Murdoch's pay-for-online-content idea.)

[majoun]

Originally Posted by CA4Now

Exactly. I imagine it was done tongue-in-cheek. It was kind of funny, I thought. And it appears that she expresses the sentiments of a lot of people who are not die-hard California fans (of which I am one). And how often many of us probably blame the place we live for our problems. (Okay, for the rest of us, let's sing the "I Love You, California" song now.)

I'm sure less than 1% of the population of California even knows "I Love You, California". It's only played at governors' funerals, the last one being Reagan's funeral. Except for Curmudgeon, a former state employee, and Nita, the wife of a former state employee, the rest of us most likely have never heard it even those of us who have couldn't identify it.

She did make some very valid points even though the newspaper industry is eating itself alive, and not just in California. Washington State is suffering less than the other western states (Colorado is also suffering less) and when true recovery comes will get back on its feet before California does. It's interesting to me that Washington is as liberal as California (with a few conservative pockets like CA mixed in) yet never has budget problems and has a functional political system. This heightens my belief that California's dysfunction is structural and that the state, in order to save itself, needs a new Constitution.

[ndfmnlf]

Originally Posted by City Boy

A weird thing I've noticed, is that people like to announce they are leaving to the world. Why? Just leave, GO. On message boards, people announce they are leaving the forum never coming back. On this site, people announce they are leaving ____________ and not returning. Why? Insecurities about the move? I could care less who leaves and why. Just leave already.

That's because they want to be told "please don't go. We need you here. You are too valuable to leave California."

[ehcsrop]

Originally Posted by ndfmnlf

That's because they want to be told "please don't go. We need you here. You are too valuable to leave California."

Green smiley or not, that's actually true. I'm guilty of that myself. In another situation, but I didn't dis the people.

But before, when I left CA in '93, I wanted to get out of the car and spit on CA from the AZ border line. Pretty juvenile especially since I was back in 2 years.

[thesoloist]

Some people won't be happy anywhere.

[MapleLeaf]

Originally Posted by thesoloist

Some people won't be happy anywhere.

Correct! But they will be less unhappy in some places, than in others