But look what has happened to Venezuela, which is starving despite its vast oil reserves, Zimbabwe, once the breadbasket of southern Africa, or Cuba, where sugar and bananas, once produced in huge quantities, are rationed. This could happen in California if the mindset that currently dominates Sacramento is allowed to run unchecked.
CA is perfectly capable of being an independent successful (albeit euro-socialist) country. There may be viable arguments against CA Independence but that is not one of them.
All you have to do is look at a country like Germany. That is what CA becomes without the balance of the blue states holding them in check.
But there’s also Sweden, Germany, etc. as liberally run countries as examples. I see it ending up more like them. There are enough intelligent people in CA that understand you don’t totally kill the golden goose.
California already does what it wants, so I don’t see a lot of changes there. Where the impact would be more significant if it left, would be in the rest of the US which would become significantly and permanently more conservative at the national level.