California: Great Place to Be, or Not so Much?

Like many other people, I live in California. Not for much longer, no, but for the time being I call it home. No, that isn't quite right. It is where I live. CA is where I live. I will be moving out of the state soon, and I'm not alone. Folks are leaving in record numbers - but why?

It's expensive.

Living in CA isn't cheap, by any stretch of the imagination. Everything, from gas prices to vehicle registration (which just recently doubled) to rent is much higher here than in many other states. Houses you can get in Oregon for $200,000 would sell for a million or more in CA.

It's dirty.

With all the smog, big cities, homeless people and gangs, CA just strikes me as being generally dirty. For every nice area, there are four surrounding it that aren't. The crime rate is out of control, and one can easily find him or her self in trouble just for visiting the wrong gas station at night. Yuck.

There is work, but the right kind?

Almost anyone is qualified to work for $8.00 an hour at a grocery store or on a warehouse assembly line - but what about those into specialty jobs? Construction is always hit or miss in CA, and usually leans toward the miss side of things. Computers are good industry around here, but because the housing is so expensive, you may never know it. To become police or fire, you better have been squeaky clean from birth on, and dreams of making it big in the acting or music industry are quickly smashed to pieces.

Forget about owning a handgun.

Thanks to the gangs and crime, it is next to impossible to carry a weapon in CA. The general feel, especially around Southern California, is that those who want a gun are somehow criminals themselves, no matter their reasons or intentions. Defending your home is actually risky.

Smog laws are understandable, but very annoying.

Are you a gear-head? Do you like to modify vehicles to make them perform better? Me too! Not here though. Smog laws are becoming so strict, anything differing from the factory setup of your ride is unacceptable. Unless, that is, you happen own a pre-1976 vehicle.