I’m still here in tax-hell SoCal. Must admit the weather and natural beauty and life quality still have a hold on me. But think about leaving and where to go every day. I would be sad to leave. New Mexico and Tucson are high on the list...
I feel yer pain. The natural beauty of Cali is a strong attractant. I was born a mile from the beach in Monterey. The place is in my blood.
But, the sane and productive people are now outnumbered there by the insane and non-productive.
When the culture degraded to the point where we penalized the producers and rewarded the non-producers, we reached a point of no return on the dwindling spiral.
Alex de Tocqueville observed that a pure democracy will destroy itself when the mob begins to vote itself largesse from the public treasury.
Impoverishing the productive segment of society through excessive taxation causes them to either cheat, flee, or withdraw their production. This is what’s happening in California and other liberal states now.