Failed Californians (San Diego, Sacramento: limo, wage, live in)

[jm1982]

True .
With millions of undocumented or illegal immigrants in CA and most in LA
It's silly to think they are all making peanuts.

People can get creative when I comes to makin money

In Greece I did hear there were people making a lot of money claiming they made like $10k a year or something ridiculous for tax purposes

[quixotic59]

Originally Posted by BayAreaHillbilly

Observation - Greece has an enormously high taxation non-compliance rate. Just saying ...

Originally Posted by jm1982

In Greece I did hear there were people making a lot of money claiming they made like $10k a year or something ridiculous for tax purposes

Absolutely no comparison at all. Two major factors contributing to Greece's financial problems (significantly more than a lax tax policy) were:

1) Too large a debt from the Olympic Games.

2) Being swindled by American banks who offered repackaged subprime mortgages under fraudulent conditions. This has been well documented.

Bottom line is US still has some of the lowest tax rates of many developed countries. Urban centers need more tax money to support greater infrastructure and services.

http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/brief...ernational.cfm

[guyatwork37]

As a native of Los Angeles (born and rasied, am 32) I hate it here. It's cost prohibitive to raise a family in a nice area with good schools. My wife and I are in the top 5% of earners in this country and the cost of things here in LA, primarily housing and childcare, make it nearly impossible to get ahead. Now I'm not saying we're poor living paycheck to paycheck, but we don't feel like we're getting ahead like we should be given our household income.

We often wonder how people do it. How is it that everyone drives new cars, have homes in nicer neighborhoods that we grew up in that we can't afford now. I mean, is everyone in a C-Level exec? A director of this or that? Maybe they are, I don't really know. I think a lot of it is that people don't save and don't plan for retirement, college for kids, etc. I don't want to live like that so we're planning on moving out of state. I suppose that makes me a failed Californian, but I'm ok with that. But it feels like California has failed me too.

[bobsnow]

Originally Posted by jm1982

True .
With millions of undocumented or illegal immigrants in CA and most in LA
It's silly to think they are all making peanuts.

Most definitely. A good friend of mine has had a painting business here in the SGV for 30 years. Ask him about what all the illegals have done to his pocketbook over the years. I have another good friend who has had his own general contracting business out here for almost 20 years. He'll tell you first hand about how well some of these outfits pay the illegals ( off the books, naturally)

[PDR2015]

Originally Posted by guyatwork37

As a native of Los Angeles (born and rasied, am 32) I hate it here. It's cost prohibitive to raise a family in a nice area with good schools. My wife and I are in the top 5% of earners in this country and the cost of things here in LA, primarily housing and childcare, make it nearly impossible to get ahead. Now I'm not saying we're poor living paycheck to paycheck, but we don't feel like we're getting ahead like we should be given our household income.

We often wonder how people do it. How is it that everyone drives new cars, have homes in nicer neighborhoods that we grew up in that we can't afford now. I mean, is everyone in a C-Level exec? A director of this or that? Maybe they are, I don't really know. I think a lot of it is that people don't save and don't plan for retirement, college for kids, etc. I don't want to live like that so we're planning on moving out of state. I suppose that makes me a failed Californian, but I'm ok with that. But it feels like California has failed me too.

I don't think living in California makes sense for everyone and the premium one has to pay in terms of extra costs can easily put a person back with retirement, housing, and other goals. California is a big pond and one has to be a bigger fish to make it here. It is all relative and highly dependent upon the career path one is on. For example, a top of the line software engineer is probably leaving a lot of money on the table and likely taking some career risk going to a 2nd tier blue-collar rural city where there are few employment opportunities for his field; the same with people who hold other highly specialized / high barrier to entry jobs. Nurses, mechanics, accountants...etc there are many more people employed in these industries and there is less leverage to that person's labor.

The concept of a "failed Californian" is somewhat insulting and not really applicable to everyone. There's no shame moving to a smaller pond where ones labor is more balanced with the local economy - that's the rational move to make. If you want to talk about real failure, you need to look no further than someone like 909er, whose false sense of superiority and injustice leads him to disparage a city for not rewarding a set of skills that is clearly not in short supply.

[jm1982]

Originally Posted by PDR2015

I don't think living in California makes sense for everyone and the premium one has to pay in terms of extra costs can easily put a person back with retirement, housing, and other goals. California is a big pond and one has to be a bigger fish to make it here. It is all relative and highly dependent upon the career path one is on. For example, a top of the line software engineer is probably leaving a lot of money on the table and likely taking some career risk going to a 2nd tier blue-collar rural city where there are few employment opportunities for his field; the same with people who hold other highly specialized / high barrier to entry jobs. Nurses, mechanics, accountants...etc there are many more people employed in these industries and there is less leverage to that person's labor.

The concept of a "failed Californian" is somewhat insulting and not really applicable to everyone. There's no shame moving to a smaller pond where ones labor is more balanced with the local economy - that's the rational move to make. If you want to talk about real failure, you need to look no further than someone like 909er, whose false sense of superiority and injustice leads him to disparage a city for not rewarding a set of skills that is clearly not in short supply.

I agree. Most people want to be in an established area because they feel like it will be a better environment , but that's not always the case.
If you can be relatively early to a growing industry in an area that can be many advantages.
I remember reading an article a while back about people that had moved to Louisiana for the film industry and how they had opportunities that they never would of had in Hollywood.

You are hearing artist in places like Detroit that moved there from NYC saying the same thing. Before they were spending so much of their time and energy working jobs just so they could pay rent that they didn't really have the time to pursue their art. In Detroit they could OWN large spaces for practically nothing.

Detroit is probably not a great place to live in ..although I haven't been there..but i'm just using it as an example.

Plenty of places more affordable than L.A or CA out there.

[WizardOfRadical]

I just take the good with the bad. If you can make it in Coastal California you can make it anywhere.

[oping00]

Originally Posted by jm1982

I agree. Most people want to be in an established area because they feel like it will be a better environment , but that's not always the case.
If you can be relatively early to a growing industry in an area that can be many advantages.
I remember reading an article a while back about people that had moved to Louisiana for the film industry and how they had opportunities that they never would of had in Hollywood.

You are hearing artist in places like Detroit that moved there from NYC saying the same thing. Before they were spending so much of their time and energy working jobs just so they could pay rent that they didn't really have the time to pursue their art. In Detroit they could OWN large spaces for practically nothing.

Detroit is probably not a great place to live in ..although I haven't been there..but i'm just using it as an example.

Plenty of places more affordable than L.A or CA out there.

No it isn't, Detroit hands down worst city in the country.

[radiolibre99]

Originally Posted by MordinSolus

Los Angeles has this weird effect on outsiders(not that I'm a native) where if anything goes wrong in life once you're in Los Angeles that it's the city's fault. In other major cities this really isn't the case. In New York, with it's "if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere" tagline, it's ABSOLUTELY the person's fault for not thriving. New York prides itself on being hard to handle but Los Angeles still has this dumb image of being a mecca for laziness, where a little hard work will put you above the loser natives and make you a star with money to burn.

I would say that the frustration is that there are so many ppl crammed into the city. The difference with LA vs NYC is that in NYC there's a lot of fierce competition of the highest caliber, I mean just Ivy League grads pour in after graduating and the jobs are battle grounds for the best of the best. I don't feel that's the case with LA outside of maybe Silicon Beach maybe?

The competition just lies in the sheer number of people. I mean the lines to get anywhere in this city are long and the competition never struck me as being "the best" of the "best". I mostly saw A LOT of mediocre to high talent but not 'omg I can never compete' talent.

The hardest hurdle is juggling your dream with the cost of living. I think the ppl that "make it" have the requisite talent but aren't stellar. What set them apart is they either had money to avoid the daily grind and work on their craft and networked like crazy OR they found the right balance of working a part time, sleeping on a friends couch and making auditions and meeting the right people.

Imagine having THE script, I'm talking the Oscar winning piece of fiction that will wow producers and the producer is taking submissions at his office. You get there and there is a line out the door. You're stuck at the end, and 5pm hits and the door slams in your face. No more submissions. The script that gets picked is about a cyborg samurai and his dog trekking through the desert in a sci fi action comedy. Laughable, but that's what LA is like.

The industry here is a closed system where nepotism rules. Its true that it's rather bottom feeding. So is it any wonder why there are so many "failures"? In NYC you have actual channels that feed you through the best jobs, there are internships, apprenticeships and networks that help you land gigs. If you want to work in Wall Street and make it big you apply. You want to work in energy trading in Houston and then start your own firm, you apply. You want to make in politics in DC, you apply. LAs big industry is all about who ya know, luck and politics.

[WizardOfRadical]

Hollywood is not the regions key industry. Just the most well known. You don't think there is nepotism in DC or Wallstreet??