There are few places on earth with the natural, intellectual and creative abundance of California. It's absolutely inexcusable that we are in this situation.
perhaps its just the fact that California is so huge and local control over expenditures is really, really gone. Its much easier to use people when they're far away and not your neighbors. Its a lot harder to see exactly how you're being bled dry when there are 18 layers of obfuscation.
The US is the largest economy in the world and last I checked California is the 5th. Places like Sweden have higher taxes, but they also have a much more manageable task of governance and more efficient public sectors. You put some tax money into the Swedish government and you might get some valuable services out of it. You give some to Uncle Sam or Uncle Arnold, and it is disappearing in some corporate/union/special interest pocket through some thousand-page bill.
its impossible for someone to siphon off resources when the democracy consists of 10 people and almost certain to happen when there's 50 million.
Of course, the naysayers will tell you that complex societies are tough to manage and require more government, but that's bunk. It should require less government, as there is far less border per person to defend.
California had the biggest net exodus of people in 2008 according to the US Census. I doubt that is because of California's great climate, beautiful landscapes, and rich natural resources... I think to the extent high taxes and regulations are responsible for California being what it is, they are no longer serving the people of California's best interests.
While there was a large net exodus in 2008 (and a similar one in 2000-2001) there were also massive inflows prior to the economic downturns associated with those years.
"I object!"