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Comment by bonestamp2 | Hacker News Reader

All the Californians that I know who have left recently, did it mostly to escape the high cost of living. Only one of them also left for political reasons, but they moved to a state with the politics they wanted. I realize it's anecdotal, but I don't think all Californians are leaving to escape the politics.

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The complaint is not that they're leaving for politics but because of the direct results of the politics and bringing the same exact politics which created those results to other places.

From the article:

> One salvo in Richey’s battle against newcomers was his property tax proposal, which he called Proposition Zero One Two Three. His basic tenet: The longer you live here, the less you pay. Sixty-year residents would pay no property taxes, while newcomers would shoulder the burden.

Amusing that the anti-Californian candidate here basically wants to introduce California's Prop 13 property tax rules which have done so much to discourage housing development and drive young people out of California.

It's hard to describe what California is now only in terms of the politics. Despite everything, the state has enjoyed a strong economy for many years, and that results in the symptoms of transcience: so many people enter the state to advance their career, then go elsewhere after getting established. They never fully engage with the politics. It's not just that it's too expensive or too liberal, rather, the local political machinery has grown accustomed to not actually being beholden to constituents in any long term sense. They get plenty of tax revenue and businesses clawing for attention.

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