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Hate California?
let’s unpack that shall we….
Much of America hates California. The red states have been well trained and they have obeyed orders like good little children — they hate everything about California, and have a special place in their hearts for hating San Francisco. New York hates San Francisco, but that’s for obvious reasons: we’re home to the companies that have disrupted media, television, advertising, music, real estate and several other industries NY thought it used to own. Oops, sorry guys.
Californians hate California too. Drive out into rural areas and the political map quickly turns red. You’ll hear unabridged vitriol against the open border situation, the immigrant ‘situation’, and of course you’ll hear about the Gavernor, Newsom. San Franciscans hate tech bros and tech founder billionaires, and in general they hate the rich, which is problematic in a city that is home to a huge chunk of America’s wealthiest people. 530,000 people in San Francisco metropolitan area are worth over $5M. Stop and think about that.
The blue area shows the states whose total economic output is lower than that of SF Bay Area. Not kidding. This number is not a sum of static wealth, but movement of money and value. In other words, the total financial transactions reported within the state. Only TX, FL, NY and IL made it.
So why do we have homelessness? Why do we have a housing shortage? Why are so many people working two jobs — with no benefits — to pay the bills? Why do we have shithouse neighborhoods where crime, violence and poverty have taken over? Why are people leaving California to make a ‘more affordable life’ in another state?
I can’t answer these questions. But I do know that I love California. The rugged coast with its long stretches of sparsely populated country and state parks, the wine country, the mountains, the golden hills for hikes, mountain biking and horse riding, the amazing city of SF and the charming towns like Fairfax, Stinson Beach, Mendocino, Carmel, Sonoma and more.
I think we could do a better job spreading the success, without being communists and destroying the incredible wealth that is being created here. We could tackle homelessness in a holistic and humane way, getting mental health issues treated, providing end to end programs to rehabilitate people for work and independent living, and we could attack gang activity in our more at-risk neighborhoods because this is where people’s futures are being stolen from them by early life violence. We could fund opportunities outside of technology for the millions of people whose strengths lie eslewhere but who struggle to climb out of shitty jobs in retail and fast food.
Even if we don’t fix all of this, let’s stop for a minute to realize that California is the big engine that is a big part of America’s current economic and cultural strength. You may not be a fan of western capitalism, but let’s be honest, the alternatives are bleak.
