The future of California (El Segundo: salons, to live, military)

[Charles]

Originally Posted by CaliDude1

I am in my early 30s

I hope things get better for California.

I see a lot of the same problems here in other states. That is why I have not jumped up and moved. Sometimes running to another place is not the answer, especially if the same problems are developing there.

You are precisely the age of person that has recently had the most difficulty living in the expensive (jobs) parts of California.

Early 30s is a common age to get married and buy a house and have kids and be concerned about schools and commuting from that nice house with the good schools to their job. From what I've read, these are the biggest reasons people have "jumped ship". Twenty year olds are still partying, they rent, no kids; Fifty year olds bought when homes were $150/sqft, kids are out of the house and they're so close to retirement anyway that it's not worth it.

However, you may be lucky. Interest rates are low and if you have a good job and housing keeps falling, it may work out for you.

[Curmudgeon]

Well, let's see. In five years, hopefully, The People's Republic of Berkeley will have seceded from not just the state but the Union as well. Some entity will have built a wall around Los Angeles to totally contain it, thereby cutting crime in California, as well as the prison population, by 50%. Bakersfield will have advanced past the Grapes of Wrath days and San Francisco will have finally fallen into the sea. English will be an optional language.

In 10 years the former state will be an extension of Baja California and governed by Mexico City. If not, it will be the newest Chinese acquisition -- kinda like Tibet but less spiritual.

For the record, I'm a native, born in 1946, recently retired and leaving here in a few months to move back to America!

[17271]

If from what I've experienced everyday is any indication, it'll look like Mexico but the U.S. Government will still be pulling the strings.

[Lovehound]

Originally Posted by CaliDude1

Also, the "best years" point is relative. I am sure there are folks who think California was better prior to the 50s. There may be some who miss the 90s. And still others want to go back to the 70s. Its all about preference. I'll stick with today and look forward.

Nostalgia is always relative. It's all about remembering things that were better in the past but gone now. Nostalgia always skips the things that are better now but didn't have in the past. Computers, the Internet, big screen TVs, DVDs... Nobody ever laments that things were better back when we had to type letters on a typewriter or write them by hand, then stick a stamp on them. Nobody misses 12" back and white TV sets (or at least not many).

The future is always different. Some things get better, some things get worse, but never the same. Change is like that. People who are nostalgic are selectively remembering only the good parts.

[Neuling]

I have never been to California, but in the 70s it was perceived here in Europe as the promised land where milk and honey flowed It even had its own sounds, or so it seemed, like Maze's song Look at California

[crystalblue]

What do you see as Californias advantages vs other states?

Disadvantages?

[Huckleberry3911948]

they want us to work for min wage but spend like the rich and famous.
so you put on your swim suit & raybans parade all day on the beach looking sexy and then get out your grocery cart and sleeping bag and sleep on the beach.

[majoun]

Originally Posted by Neuling

I have never been to California, but in the 70s it was perceived here in Europe as the promised land where milk and honey flowed It even had its own sounds, or so it seemed, like Maze's song Look at California

Mainly because of the big impact of the '60s/'70s California youth subcultures as expressed in music, films, TV, etc. And, make no mistake, CA was a great place in those days even though I was too young to enjoy all but the very end of that period...

[vdy1985]

I'm only 24, but for sure California has seen it's better days. Being from San Jose, I'd say that the best days where the mid-90's to early 2000's. Tech boom!

[BayAreaHillbilly]

The true break point, from a leading indicators perspective, had to be the late 80s, probably 1988 or so. Prior to then, the California of growth, wealth, middle class empowerment, balance between ultra liberal East Coast style thinking and Old West thinking, etc, still existed. After then, it became discernible as what we see now.

A major factor was the decline in military spending and subsequent collapse of the aerospace / defense industry. This was, to cop a notion from posts above, the threshold illness affecting an elder body.