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absolutely love yr comments on calif, and its really, really tough trying to weigh the pros and cons on whether to go ahead and pay that paradise tax to live there or live in fla where the humidity will kill u... but its ALSO beautiful! being a lifelong resident of texas/dallas to be exact u will pay out the yazoo for ELECTRICITY B/C ITS SO FREAKING HOT DURING THE SUMMER!!! AND HUMID 24/7....YOUR A/C WILL NEVER SHUT OFF.......AND I'M TALKING JUST KEEPING THE TEMP AT AROUND 78-79. Cooling my 1700 sq ft house costs between $250 to $350 A MONTH DURING SUMMER!!! And friends that have a much larger 3000 sq ft two story will pay approx $700 average EVERY MONTH - thats JUST TO KEEP COOL!!!! i would desperately.......love to live in sunny calif,no or so but have been warned so many times by texans that moved there EVERYTHING IS SO EXPENSIVE. I KNOW U GET ZERO FOR $300K if u can find one AND HERE U GET A NICE 3000SQFT WITH POOL AND A FIREPIT. SO...its very difficult to find that perfect ideal spot in paradise!! yr ideas and comments were so humerous and enjoyed reading it!! sooo, if u dont mind burning yr ass off in the summer and being 'landlocked' come on down to tx!!! good luck on yr choice in relocating!!
I got your goat as usual. What about us mixed race (Asian, Caucasian, Black) game hunting, gun toting natives with Advanced Degrees who manage major high tech companies? If you never met anyone like me, then you either grew up in a highly non diverse enclave, or are very young (e.g. under 30). As a Gen X type myself (born in the 60s) I had the pleasure of still being able to experience the old California ratcheer in the Bay Area burbs. Also, I did not say I was part of some majority, by the late 60s (e.g. my first memories) a lot of social damage had already been done. Most of the elitists I refer to are actually white people from the NE US.
You need to read more carefully and avoid being overwhelmed by anger when you are doing it. I am from a very bourgeois middle to lower middle class background. If that is not salt of the earth I don't know what is. I am the California version of those "clinging to Bibles and guns" that Obama spoke of at that gala event at the Getty place.
I render no value judgment about my thoughts. They are what they are.
Not sure what you mean by bigoted. I judge people based on the content of their character. I seem to recall a certain Dr. King having something to say about that. And about being old ... OK ... I confess ... I am a Gen Xer. I guess that's old to some.
NFW. This is my home. My family and social circle are here. For now, my life is here. How dare you try to pressure me to leave. In fact, that is sort of a type of ethnic cleansing. Interesting ... the impulses of Fabians with totalitarian leanings. Should I be sent to a camp? Is that not the next step down the slippery slope, after steps like being told to leave my home?
Well, maybe you should try. It would actually make you more diverse.
Again, you do get my goat..why?
Because the majority of your rantings mention a dislike/irk with immigrants (but only ones of non-white color) and how California's economic problems somehow have everything to do with immigrants.
I'm pretty positive that I've mentioned at some point that I am older (also born in the 60's and am also a gen X'r) in California (Bay Area native AND bi-racial (asian/white) Born in Fairfield (hardly some non-diverse enclave!) .. moved to the City when I was older. So you couldn't even be more wrong about me!
I'm married to one of those "immigrants"(but not the kind you don't like..since he's white) you so blame for the woes of California. He is also high tech.
I grew up solid middle class (in fact my father worked in a factory that made canned goods)..oh, and he's born/raised in the middle of Wyoming on a farm..and pretty conservative). I've also lived in Sacramento, many other places in Norcal and Europe.
So I do find it very odd that you would suggest someone that is probably far more diverse than yourself would chide me for not being diverse enough! I don't encourage you to leave your home state, I encourage you to quit moaning about it's problems and quit blaming immigrants on it's woes.
Oh, even more diverse for you at that..I have 4 kids, am not a Mormon ,or a Catholic, or someone from Asia. I have a college education, and am currently able to live on my husbands paycheck (I guess that makes me an "elitist" according to your rantings).
So I think you just need to rethink your biases and preconceived notions about people. We obviously grew up similarly, but obviously don't think alike at all! You just never know who you might be offending..namely your own "salt of the earth" type of person.
Clongirl, speaking of biases, you appear to be biased against:
- Patriotic Americans who express love for their country
- Conservatives
- People who connect with the Old West
Look at yourself in the mirror. On another thread, you jumped all over me when I expressed some regret about some old style family chains leaving the area. I (and my FOREIGN mostly Asian mixed race wife) really liked those places. And yet, you rendered all sorts of value judgments against me for expressing that.
Seems that although you are yourself of Old West stock, you've turned on your own roots and embraced the latter day radical San Francisco ethos as your general world view.
And just to clarify my views on immigrants. As I am married to a LEGAL NON WHITE IMMIGRANT (who BTW shares my views) I think it's fair to say I have no issue with legal immigration. The other qualifier is, I welcome foreigners who are here to love America and become part of it. Oh, no, there goes the "A" word again ... assimilation!
OMG ... I must be a Nazi or something to believe in THAT! /sarc
Clongirl, speaking of biases, you appear to be biased against:
- Patriotic Americans who express love for their country
- Conservatives
- People who connect with the Old West
Look at yourself in the mirror. On another thread, you jumped all over me when I expressed some regret about some old style family chains leaving the area. I (and my FOREIGN mostly Asian mixed race wife) really liked those places. And yet, you rendered all sorts of value judgments against me for expressing that.
Seems that although you are yourself of Old West stock, you've turned on your own roots and embraced the latter day radical San Francisco ethos as your general world view.
And just to clarify my views on immigrants. As I am married to a LEGAL NON WHITE IMMIGRANT (who BTW shares my views) I think it's fair to say I have no issue with legal immigration. The other qualifier is, I welcome foreigners who are here to love America and become part of it. Oh, no, there goes the "A" word again ... assimilation!
OMG ... I must be a Nazi or something to believe in THAT! /sarc
First of all "Old West Stock"? Do you even know how ridiculous that sounds? "Connect w/ the "Old West"? I'm sorry , but that is just sounds so frickin' nuts. Like when the Native Americans were forced off of their land? or when immigrants from Europe brought nasty diseases like Syphillis to kill them all off? No, I can honestly say I really don't obsess about such things.
Where exactly have you seen me write anything against patriotic people?
Again, My own father is from the depths of one of the most the conservative patriotic, country boy state. My uncles are all ex-Marines/Army AND Navy and also live by the same mindset as yourself.
So you prefer to align yourself w/ the "country boy" culture...Fine. I've got nothing against it (unless it's got racist overtones, which it does). It's your way of blaming our states problems on immigrants. (I believe that it's just scapegoating, that's all). I really don't even know what you mean by "turning on my roots" Huh? do you even know how down right KKK that sounds? Should I grow my hair long, and braid it and wear a mandarin collar, or should I eat haggis and learn Irish dancing to appease my "roots"? LOL
I don't know how you can make such blanket assumptions about people that come from other countries.
How do you actually KNOW they are not trying to assimilate into the culture? So if you hear someone speaking Cantonese to another Chinese person, you are making strong assumptions that they are not trying to learn the language at all.
What exactly IS American culture by your standards? Is it waving a flag or holding a gun or eating McDonalds? White bread and butter w/ steak on the side? Wait, that sounds like typical Irish fare..that doesn't sound very American! I don't think you really know.
You seem to just know that this element of America is the only thing that will get our state back to where it really never was.
Why must immigrants fit YOUR mold of what patriotism is? I love my country but I love it because I've lived outside of it to be able to know what it means to love it. I don't believe in blind patriotism. I don't need to hang a flag or carry weaponry or kill deer to prove it. That actually sounds like a British trait. I love it for my own reasons. I don't need to exert my beliefs on the subject. But I'll also tell you this..I love other places too for different reasons. I can compare w/ appreciation.
I know all the political argument about illegals etc. I'm not pro-illegal immigration..honestly, nobody is). I just don't believe or have seen any hard evidence that they are bringing the state down (housing bubble is the problem).
I apologize if it seems that I'm butting heads with you all the time..I just don't like to hear such vitriol over my home and placing all the blame on liberal or illegals. I just think that's a worn out, bogus and not very thoughtful way of thinking.
Thank you everyone for your feedback and for some of you (intelligent) feedback. I wont be replying on this thread anymore. I have seen enough
Best wishes to CA going forward and I hope those that remain here get involved w/ the politics/decisions that shape how you live.
Cheers.
DANG! Missed my chance to offer what would likely have been construed as unintelligent feedback since I'm old, which likely makes me ignorant to some, and at the apex of my career never earned anything higher than the upper five figures so I was an obvious and abject failure who clearly couldn't match this superior being's intellectual level even on my best day.
Never mind that I enjoyed what I did for a living because I provided needed services, raised five children who are all adults and self-sufficient (one of whom could buy and sell this guy several times over), never wanted a McMansion or any other form of conspicuous consumption, have a secure future as a retiree and enjoy my life and family just as they are.
Guess I need to mention my "pitiful" income at least another half dozen times just to keep up, huh?
Oh, yeah! I worked in the military law enforcement, politics and legislation over the course of 45 years so I shaped how a lot of people live, especially criminals.
Now please pardon me while I go cry in my plebian beer and eat some worms!
To the OP-- Don't let the door hit ya- you know where -on your way out.
Brilliant idea you had.. hmmmm I think I'll post to many long time residents of this area and say "your state sucks... I'm out 'ta here! Here's why. Do you all agree with me!?"
How could you expect a warm response to something like that??
To the OP-- Don't let the door hit ya- you know where -on your way out.
Brilliant idea you had.. hmmmm I think I'll post to many long time residents of this area and say "your state sucks... I'm out 'ta here! Here's why. Do you all agree with me!?"
How could you expect a warm response to something like that??
Seems this California forum has more tension and war than any other forums. I think it's because so many people think too extreme on one side. Conservatives and Liberal crashing again. I don't get it. Your in such a gorgeous state (for the most part) yet so many are so mad (probably political and COL related I'm sure). I'd trade spots with you in a heartbeat, you can have our long cold winters and booooring backwoods thinking, I'll take your sun and mountains (and never own my own home$) any day. Stop fighting, it's like the middle east in here!
Seems this California forum has more tension and war than any other forums. I think it's because so many people think too extreme on one side. Conservatives and Liberal crashing again. I don't get it.
It's probably because CA is a big economically diverse state with lots of people accepting and leaving jobs, moving from different parts of the country. Also because CA is undergoing such dynamic economic swings in the past three years - much less stable than other US places.
The differences between liberals and conservatives are in the noise compared to the differences in housing prices, weather, traffic, and taxes.
What the OP describes when referring to the current elites here is not all that different from the old "there is no life West of the Hudson" attitude which afflicts some in NYC. It is a nose in the air snobbishness which views the rest of the nation as a bunch of rubes and hicks, filled with racism and lacking so called "worldliness."
I am a native Californian "millionaire" (for what little that is worth in this inflated land, you should see my house, because I have not used massive debt financing for improvements it really does resemble a hillbilly shack!). I have over two decades of experience in high tech ranging from start ups to large Fortune 100 firms. I am also somewhat of a recovering "JFK liberal" (meaning a classical liberal who at one time accepted a degree of government largesse). Seeing the corrosive effects of statism, by the 1990s I belatedly became a Reagan conservative.
Also, in terms of background ... while I nominally resemble the other elites here, I am quite different. Firstly, I am a native from a rather bourgeois background. I attended state schools in California (UC, to be precise). I'm not an Ivy paper slinging transplant or a foreigner (although married to the latter). Although I was a JFK Dem in my youth I was and remain at heart what many elite carpetbaggers who've taken over the Bay Area, LA, SD, etc would call a "hick." I like to cowboy up. I like to shoot my guns, hunt, and fish. I am very comfortable with real country people and hanging out in one horse towns in places like Modoc County. I think you get the picture. This gives me a unique perspective of not only my fellow economic elite but also of all they disdain. Believe me, I am constantly biting my tongue, restraining myself from responding in social settings to some rather extreme bigotry against the salt of the Earth. You think that Obama speech secretly recorded on Billionaires' Row (at Getty's place) was bad? You ain't heard nothing.
I commend the OP for pointing out what's rotten in the Formerly Golden State. My state. Warts and all. Will there be a divorce some day? We'll see.
What does your resume have anything to do with this thread?
Are you saying we should consider you an authority on California because you have all these so called credentials?
Post your income tax returns here, as well as your statement of assets and liabilities...also your diploma. Finally, post a picture of yourself (since you claimed to be part Chinese in another thread). Failing that, you are no more credible than Bozo the clown.
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love yr thoughts on ca
absolutely love yr comments on calif, and its really, really tough trying to weigh the pros and cons on whether to go ahead and pay that paradise tax to live there or live in fla where the humidity will kill u... but its ALSO beautiful! being a lifelong resident of texas/dallas to be exact u will pay out the yazoo for ELECTRICITY B/C ITS SO FREAKING HOT DURING THE SUMMER!!! AND HUMID 24/7....YOUR A/C WILL NEVER SHUT OFF.......AND I'M TALKING JUST KEEPING THE TEMP AT AROUND 78-79. Cooling my 1700 sq ft house costs between $250 to $350 A MONTH DURING SUMMER!!! And friends that have a much larger 3000 sq ft two story will pay approx $700 average EVERY MONTH - thats JUST TO KEEP COOL!!!! i would desperately.......love to live in sunny calif,no or so but have been warned so many times by texans that moved there EVERYTHING IS SO EXPENSIVE. I KNOW U GET ZERO FOR $300K if u can find one AND HERE U GET A NICE 3000SQFT WITH POOL AND A FIREPIT. SO...its very difficult to find that perfect ideal spot in
paradise!! yr ideas and comments were so humerous and enjoyed reading it!! sooo, if u dont mind burning yr ass off in the summer and being 'landlocked' come on down to tx!!! good luck on yr choice in relocating!!
