Did anybody bother to explain to her that if her state didn’t tax the hell out of property owners the renters wouldn’t be paying such high rents in the first place?..............
In defense of the state - and my willingness to defend CA starts and stops here - the state taxes a flat 1% of assessed value - which is the same as for most states. That CA has high assessed values is in part due to the economy there.
And this is an old fallacy. The rents are high because salaries are high and land is scarce. The economic theory of rents is old and understood since Ricardo.