Carl's Jr wants to move its Headquarters (Berkeley: home, schools)

[user_id]

Originally Posted by yeahthatguy

I dunno user_id .. Austin sounds good and there are lots of techies/ Entrepreneurship going on there. Google/facebook/Zyanga can't do all the hiring.

There are some, hardly "lots". Start-up activity in Austin or Texas in general is very modest for a state of its size, in fact Colorado gets more Venture Capital even though it has a much smaller population.

There isn't much innovation coming out of Austin. Due to the lower costs Austin is a good place to relocate your more mundane operations though.

Originally Posted by yeahthatguy

California can't continue to have a monopoly on startups/Entrepreneurship . Nor will it... Theres only soo many people you can cram into the bay area and see very well how it is already impacting things.

You are focusing on the cost issue and ignoring all the real important issues. The bay area didn't become a start-up hot spot magically, rather due to the infrastructure in the area. In particular two large universities with some of the best computer science, math, etc programs in the country.

Again, your narrow focuses on low taxes clouds everything. The other side to higher taxes is better government services, in particular higher education. Its no surprise that the states with the best higher education infrastructure also happen to be states with higher overall taxes. States like Texas have consistently under funded their university system and continue to do so today. Not only that there is a history of anti-intellectualism, hence a lack of excellent private institutions as well. Texas isn't going to become a start-up hub until state priorities make a major shift, even then it will take awhile. You can't build world class universities over night.

Texas has a brain-drain, in terms of higher education their top talent has few choices within the state and end up living. But once gone, they are usually gone forever. To make up for their poor investments, Texas has to try to attract businesses from other regions. Its a catch 22 really. The only away Texas is going to improve its infrastructure is by raising Taxes, yet raising Taxes will make it harder to attract out-of-state businesses.

Originally Posted by yeahthatguy

MY generation saddled w/ school debt .. Saddled w/ this recession and other things have come to be more realistic about life, debt, and finances ... Certain things take priority over nature/weather. Afterall, your average person in tech in the bay area doesn't get to enjoy it anyway (10-12) hour days... and M-F you're in an office. I guess its nice to look at while commuting an hour or two from work and on weekends when you're not on-call for build issues/major releases.

Your generation (assuming generation Y) saddled itself with debt, etc, because you were soiled brats. I don't see much realism in your comments, I see whining. Instead of grabbing life by the balls you're complaining, instead of starting a business you're complaining and waiting for something that doesn't matter.

In terms of priorities, yes, certain things take priority. For example, the priority for the entrepreneur is not a house with a lot of space but rather being next to things that are important to them. You can find many reasonable places throughout the Silicon Valley that are less than a McMansion in Texas.

[Highpointer]

Originally Posted by user_id

Texas has a brain-drain, in terms of higher education their top talent has few choices within the state and end up living. But once gone, they are usually gone forever.

There are many, many universities in the state of Texas, so how could one say that?

[TVC15]

Originally Posted by yeahthatguy

My efforts to get people to see the waste/fraud/abuse of CA's government in way of tax revenue is not whining. If you think it is, you don't care to know about it or act on it because you don't care to know about its impact on your beloved state or are ignorant about how it already is/will.

My efforts end come June (if there is a vote)/decision to extend the tax increase. And I will make a decision as to when to leave... It is not about the short term change that will come about via this tax extension but more about the long term direction of this state based on it....

So, don't worry.. if you have your way, there will be lots of more free land to roam (what you desire) and tons more deficit burden for you to take on (what you don't realize) ... You have an objective which you make clear in all your posts : Get all of the hardworking modern day people out of California so you can enjoy the beauty of the barren land...

I don't care for it as don't most people who live in modern day California ... If i feel something is right, i do my research and verify it isn't.. Then I take up efforts to make others aware of it.. In hopes to have people make more informed decisions. It's clear those that don't want people to make informed decisions (become more educated on a matter) will try to detract from my effort and call it 'whining'. But hey, it's a free country

You are correct in that California voters are not very smart and they love to vote for more taxes!

Just the mere mention of Texas sends some Californians into idiot mode.

Big cities such as Houston and Dallas may not have the ocean and mountains but they offer world class amenities and you get a lot more bang for your buck! Not only no state income tax but Texas does not incorporate everyone paying for everyone else's disability...no disability tax. I have never seen as many people living off of disability in my entire life as I have seen here in California. They are out mowing the yard and drinking it up. They even know exactly how much income they can earn and still get that good ole disability. Some people who know that they are about to be fired claim disability so they can continue getting paid and this in turn ties up the employer from being able to hire anyone for that position. Now they are short staffed and all the while Californians are footing the bill for this loser. That is one of the biggest abuses of taxation waste for Californians. That system enables many to jump on the disability band wagon for life. I wonder how much those people are contributing to paying California taxes.

When will the voters wake up

[TVC15]

Originally Posted by Highpointer

There are many, many universities in the state of Texas, so how could one say that?

People who don't know very much about Texas and only spew BS!

[yeahthatguy]

It has begun again.. *sigh

Originally Posted by user_id

There are some, hardly "lots". Start-up activity in Austin or Texas in general is very modest for a state of its size, in fact Colorado gets more Venture Capital even though it has a much smaller population.

And so, as of late, VC cash has been sloshing around in the bay but mainly to feed the social media bubble .. Most of which have no future and their end goal is to be bought up by big firms like google/facebook who are flush w/ boom capital that is slowly decreasing. Quality over Quantity ... Personally, I busted my but these past 5 years to build my own capital and wont be seeking any such capital... I am not a 'startup' and am not seeking to make some silly arse iphone fart app.

Originally Posted by user_id

There isn't much innovation coming out of Austin. Due to the lower costs Austin is a good place to relocate your more mundane operations though.

I guess this applies to India as well -_-) . So, the innovation comes to California in way of a small group of people and the 'mundane' stuff gets outsourced in order to compensate for the incredible cost of locating here... Slowly those 'mundane' people build and branch off and innovation occurs elsewhere.... And slowly, well hey, business is booming in those low cost centers.... They are innovating and manufacturing there and the companies located here suddenly have problems competing on a cost basis.

Originally Posted by user_id

You are focusing on the cost issue and ignoring all the real important issues. The bay area didn't become a start-up hot spot magically, rather due to the infrastructure in the area. In particular two large universities with some of the best computer science, math, etc programs in the country.

You are focusing too much on California as if it is the only place innovation and great things are happening. I am not from California. I actually went to the #1 school in Computer Science and it wasn't in California. I am from Florida. That's great that California has great things going for it. Other places in the world do to and have lower cost of living/taxes. The reason for the 2011 predicament of California is that business choose continually to only innovate amongst a small group of people here and completely ship everything else overseas to compensate for the incredible costs here.. So yeah, great innovation going on, 12.x% unemployment and taxes to compensate for all the corpses left around all the expensive innovation that has to ship 'mundane' elsewhere.

Originally Posted by user_id

Again, your narrow focuses on low taxes clouds everything. The other side to higher taxes is better government services, in particular higher education. Its no surprise that the states with the best higher education infrastructure also happen to be states with higher overall taxes. States like Texas have consistently under funded their university system and continue to do so today. Not only that there is a history of anti-intellectualism, hence a lack of excellent private institutions as well. Texas isn't going to become a start-up hub until state priorities make a major shift, even then it will take awhile. You can't build world class universities over night.

What better government services ? Even with the insane annual car registration tax .. the roads here suck .. Where is the money going ?

Even w/ all the income taxes.. Your K-12 education rankings suck..... So where is the benefit of all the taxes? Your universities ?.. Stanford is a private school ... Caltech is a private school .. USC is a private school. Berkley ...

"The campus increased the number of enrollment offers to international students and out-of-state students as part of an effort to generate additional funds during this time of budget deficits. Since they are not California residents, these students must fund the full cost of their non-resident tuition in addition to what California-resident students pay. Nonresident students pay three times as much in tuition and fees as students from California. The additional nonresident funds will help UC Berkeley maintain academic excellence for all students."

I can go on and on...

Originally Posted by user_id

Texas has a brain-drain, in terms of higher education their top talent has few choices within the state and end up living. But once gone, they are usually gone forever. To make up for their poor investments, Texas has to try to attract businesses from other regions. Its a catch 22 really. The only away Texas is going to improve its infrastructure is by raising Taxes, yet raising Taxes will make it harder to attract out-of-state businesses.

California has private schools ... Most of the highest ranking ones are and don't exist due to higher taxes. This infrastructure you talk about.... It's a catch 22 that you pay all these taxes and its no better ...

California's report card :
Aviation C
Levees / Flood Control F <- i am sure w/ all the rain this is becoming clear
Parks / Open Space D
Ports C
Solid Waste B
Transportation D
Urban Runoff D
Wastewater C
Water C
California’s Infrastructure GPA C

69 of California’s 1,247 dams are in need of rehabilitation to meet applicable state dam safety standards.
59% of high hazard dams in California have no emergency action plan (EAP). An EAP is a predetermined plan of action to be taken including roles, responsibilities and procedures for surveillance, notification and evacuation to reduce the potential for loss of life and property damage in an area affected by a failure or mis-operation of a dam.
California’s drinking water infrastructure needs an investment of $27.87 billion over the next 20 years.
California ranked 11th in the quantity of hazardous waste produced and 1st in the total number of hazardous waste producers.
California’s ports handled 216 million tons of waterborne traffic in 2005, ranking it 3rd in the nation.
California reported an unmet need of $1.7 billion for its state public outdoor recreation facilities and parkland acquisition.
66% of California’s major roads are in poor or mediocre condition.
68% of California’s urban interstates are considered congested.
Vehicle travel on California’s highways increased by 27% from 1990 to 2007.
California spends $2 billion less each year on highway maintenance and rehabilitation than is needed.
California has $18.17 billion in wastewater infrastructure needs.
30% of California’s bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.
There are 687 high hazard dams in California. A high hazard dam is defined as a dam whose failure would cause a loss of life and significant property damage.

Again, this is why i speak so passionately about the Taxes here.. They are high as heck and you receive no benefit ... If there was a perceivable benefit there would be nothing to discuss ...

Originally Posted by user_id

Your generation (assuming generation Y) saddled itself with debt, etc, because you were soiled brats. I don't see much realism in your comments, I see whining. Instead of grabbing life by the balls you're complaining, instead of starting a business you're complaining and waiting for something that doesn't matter.

LOL. I don't see much realism in yours .. Just a bunch of California cheer leading as if this is the only place on earth where business and innovation can happen. I am grabbing life by the balls. Why should I let California grab mine in the process when I don't have to ? I already successfully produce income doing equity/futures/commodity market trading .. This is an aside from my main job in Software Engineering which I don't need anymore. I can trade from anywhere in the world. I can run a real-estate investment company from anywhere (the non-capital intensive positive cash flow real-estate investments aren't even in CA)... I refuse to start a real-estate investment company until I move because my capital is tied up in market investments and I see no benefit in doing it when California will put its claws into the proceeds. My capital is at work and avoiding taxes until i leave and can drain it w/o seeing 9.25% of it go up in smoke. I can run a software company from anywhere as well (the capability is not just in California .. especially the ones that are cheap).

Originally Posted by user_id

In terms of priorities, yes, certain things take priority. For example, the priority for the entrepreneur is not a house with a lot of space but rather being next to things that are important to them. You can find many reasonable places throughout the Silicon Valley that are less than a McMansion in Texas.

You continue to ignore my situation and group me w/ your general ideal case for locating in CA. I can run my ventures from anywhere. I run my ventures to make money... To enjoy life.. Not to give it all away in taxes/shack built in 1982. So yeah, since I can, I would rather locate where I can freely enjoy my labor instead of hand it over to someone and get nothing perceivable in return. And yeah, i could find a reasonable $1 million house built in 1961 that's half the size of one in Texas. Pay 11-12k in property taxes like I would in texas and then pay 9.25% income tax on all my income above $40k and then pay 9.25% for any purchase I make.. and then pay 1.25% of my car's value every year in taxes. As for this cheap places, lets take a look at the school rankings in these places :
API Scores - Explore the performance of California schools

You know California.. You should know better.. Home's are priced namely due to the schooling district (especially in the bay area : i.e - Cupertino, Palo Alto, Mountain View).

Reminds me of a co-worker from India who left after a year of being here to return back to India.. I had a real talk w/ him and he said he just couldn't take it anymore... The school his kids went to was horrible... He couldn't afford private schooling. With his six figure income it would take forever to try to afford a home. He could live much better in India. His kids could get a much better education... And surprise... My company had an India office. Off he went.

I felt like a made progress ..... then you whip out the California pom-poms and personal attacks.. and again jumped to conclusions about my situation and come out being flat out wrong ...Give it a rest man.

California is great but not for all people and situations .... I care extremely about this tax extension because i want to decide on a place to start living and run my business and it matters to me the long term direction of such a place... The tax extensions impact is minimal on me but indicates the direction people want to take things in California to solve their epic deficits and economic issues. I don't want to anchor myself here and wake up to some foolishness like what happened in Illinois :

"The hike will also boost the corporate income tax rate by nearly 50 percent, from 4.8 percent to 7 percent. In addition to the corporate income tax, many businesses in Illinois pay a “Personal Property Replacement Tax” of 2.5 percent of income, bumping their corporate tax rate to 9.5 percent."


Sandwich franchiser Jimmy John's is contemplating moving its corporate headquarters from Champaign, Illinois to perhaps Florida, where its founder, Jimmy John Liautaud, has applied for residency. "All they do is stick it to us," he told the Champaign News Gazette, adding that the general assembly and the Governor showed "a clear lack of understanding."

[user_id]

Originally Posted by Highpointer

There are many, many universities in the state of Texas, so how could one say that?

Simple, although there are many universities the vast majority of them are bottom tier. Texas only has two universities in the top 50 and one of them is rather small (Rice).

[TVC15]

Originally Posted by user_id

Simple, although there are many universities the vast majority of them are bottom tier. Texas only has two universities in the top 50 and one of them is rather small (Rice).

Again you show that you do not have your facts straight when talking about Texas. You should get your facts straight if you are going spout off things that you think you know about.

UH takes big step up to Tier One status | Houston & Texas News | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

[user_id]

Originally Posted by yeahthatguy

And so, as of late, VC cash has been sloshing around in the bay but mainly to feed the social media bubble ..

This is hogwash, social media represent a fairly small percentage of total start-ups in the bay area.

Originally Posted by yeahthatguy

So, the innovation comes to California in way of a small group of people and the 'mundane' stuff gets outsourced in order to compensate for the incredible cost of locating here... Slowly those 'mundane' people build and branch off and innovation occurs elsewhere....

Although in some cases the innovation "comes to California", but usually its created in California. Again, you're not appreciating the role universities play in innovation. And no, the people working in more or less mundane jobs don't typically branch off, etc. The reason why the Austin area has some start-up activity is directly related to UT Austin, not from people moving from other areas to be a code monkey.

I've never suggested that California is the only place to innovate, there are other hubs of innovation on the east coast that are located near first class universities as well.

If you actually went to one of the top schools in computer science you'd know that there are actually four universities that are consistently tied for the #1 spot. Two of them happen to be Berkeley and Stanford.

Originally Posted by yeahthatguy

Even w/ all the income taxes.. Your K-12 education rankings suck..... So where is the benefit of all the taxes? Your universities ?.. Stanford is a private school ... Caltech is a private school .. USC is a private school. Berkley ...

K-12 education in California can use some significant improvements, but partly why the rankings are bad is due to the high immigrant population. In terms of universities, California has the best public university system in the country. The fact that you can't acknowledge that demonstrates your bitter partisanship. I have no idea why you're only mentioning the private schools when California has 6 public universities (out of 15) in the top 50, namely Berkeley, UCLA, UCSB, UCSD, UCD and UCI.

Originally Posted by yeahthatguy

LOL. I don't see much realism in yours .. Just a bunch of California cheer leading as if this is the only place on earth where business and innovation can happen. I am grabbing life by the balls.

To say it again, I've never suggested California is the only place. In fact, if I could go back in time I would have never moved back to California, I would have instead moved to New York or Massachusetts. But I moved back to California and now I'm here and I will make the best of it, its very unlikely I will be here long term. When I decide to settle down I will likely move to Vermont.

Originally Posted by yeahthatguy

i could find a reasonable $1 million house built in 1961 that's half the size of one in Texas. Pay 11-12k in property taxes like I would in texas and then pay 9.25% income tax on all my income above $40k and then pay 9.25% for any purchase I make.. and then pay 1.25% of my car's value every year in taxes.

Yes you could find a house, or you could rent a decent apartment or condo and pay $1,500~$2,000/month.

Buying a house when you're an entrepreneur is actually rather stupid, your life is totally up in the air.

Regardless, I'm still just seeing complaining and whining. You are waiting for an irrelevant event (and yes...its truly irrelevant) to start a business? The money you are losing by waiting and complaining all day will vastly outstrip whatever extra taxes you may pay in California. Furthermore, starting a business in California doesn't mean you have to keep your business in California. Relocating a business with no employees, faculties, etc is rather simple.

[user_id]

Originally Posted by TVC15

Again you show that you do not have your facts straight when talking about Texas. You should get your facts straight if you are going spout off things that you think you know about.

Are you being serious? You posted an article about a single university that is starting to improve, how in the world does refute anything that I stated? Your comment is baffling.

What I stated is entirely accurate. There are only 2 Texas universities in the top 50, there are 3 in the top 100 (top 100 is referred to as tier 1). The vast majority of Texas Universities are bottom tier.

[TVC15]

Originally Posted by user_id

Are you being serious? You posted an article about a single university that is starting to improve, how in the world does refute anything that I stated? Your comment is baffling.

What I stated is entirely accurate. There are only 2 Texas universities in the top 50, there are 3 in the top 100 (top 100 is referred to as tier 1). The vast majority of Texas Universities are bottom tier.

Are you serious? Which tier system classification are you using since there are so many different ranking systems for tier classification. Which one are going by?

College and university rankings - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


"There's no standard definition for what makes a school tier one, although rankings by the Carnegie Foundation, U.S. News & World Report and other groups are a factor.
In general, top tier schools have annual research expenditures of $100 million or more, attract top high school students and offer a wide range of undergraduate and graduate programs.
Another measure is membership in the Association of American Universities. That's by invitation only, and leaders of the elite group of 63 schools have indicated they are in no hurry to expand.
UH faculty received more than $100 million in research grants last year, more than any of the other emerging research universities. Its goal is $200 million by 2021"