
California ranks last in quality of life in new report - Jerry2
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/03/01/california-ranks-last-quality-life-new-report/384853002/
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kilroy123
As a native Californian who moved away years ago. I know many people back
"home" who would agree with this. Lot's of those folks would love to move away
if they could.

Still, I can't help but miss home sometimes. California really is one of the
most beautiful areas in the world. It has a bit of it all. Deserts. White
sandy beaches. Mountains. Forests.

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danans
One should probably disregard any report that tries to rank anything as hard
to pin down as quality of life over entities as large and diverse as states.
Even the smallest states in the US have wildly different quality of life
depending on income and geography.

The large ones like California and Texas are practically like countries when
it comes to how varied quality of life is within their borders.

It's better to look at specific metrics (health, education, housing,
opportunity) that comprise quality of life. California excels at some of those
for some people, and fails at some for some people.

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Skunkleton
Not to be a prick, but this article says the highest quality of life is in
North Dakota. Does that sound right?

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frogfuzion
Yep. You are truly happy and don't have to worry about urban issues which are
huge stressors.

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not_kurt_godel
> You are truly happy*

* If you like what North Dakota has to offer, which is a very narrow set of options on the spectrum of life possibilities.

> don't have to worry about urban issues which are huge stressors.

Urban living can be stressful, but I'll take urban stressors over being
trapped in a small pond if it's the wrong pond. Rural life can be awesome but
it can also get incredibly boring. It's also prone to souring quickly if you
have difficulties with the dozen or so people you might have regular contact
with. I lived in a rural area for a spell and it turned out the local handyman
had been stealing from everyone for years. What do you do when that guy is the
only handyman in the county and his family blames you for his problems when he
goes to jail? Not a good situation.

Urban conveniences are also awesome. It'll be hard for me to move somewhere
that lacks the variety and quality of food options currently available to me
now. People in rural areas seem quite content with comparatively awful and
unhealthy food.

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Keverw
Doesn't surprise me. Housing is so expensive there, everything costs so much
more, taxes are highest in the nation, multiple levels of government within
the state is in direct violation of 8 U.S. Code § 1324. They let illegals get
a driver license instead of stalling them while someone in the back calls U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement to come and pick them up. Some of the rich
billionaires even are leading a campaign to have California to leave the
union, so that shows how much they hate the rest of the US.

California is pretty and iconic, plenty of things to do for tourism but I
surely wouldn't want to live there. Silicon Valley used to be the dream, but
during the 2016 election I realized how much of a bubble it is.

Kinda surprised Ohio was ranked worse than California at #40... Maybe because
it's boring here with nothing to do.

Less Debt, Less spending, Less unemployment.
[http://www.usdebtclock.org/state-debt-clocks/state-of-
ohio-d...](http://www.usdebtclock.org/state-debt-clocks/state-of-ohio-debt-
clock.html) and [http://www.usdebtclock.org/state-debt-clocks/state-of-
califo...](http://www.usdebtclock.org/state-debt-clocks/state-of-california-
debt-clock.html)

I personally would love to move to South Dakota. Small and efficient
government, no income taxes, low sales tax, property taxes doesn't really seem
much higher, no safety or smog inspections for cars. I hear you can get things
taken care of at the DMV quickly unlike larger states where you wait hours and
hours or weeks to get an appointment. Very friendly state to full time RVers
and digital nomad's too as they are one of the few states that recognize
fulltime travelers. So for you entrepreneurs that are interested in that
lifestyle, a good state also.

~~~
adamrezich
> multiple levels of government within the state is in direct violation of 8
> U.S. Code § 1324

Please elaborate on this?

Also, you're right, South Dakota is amazing. Grew up here, moved away to
Redmond for a few years to go to school and look for work, and when I didn't
find any, I ended back up here. I was surprised at how much I missed it.

~~~
Keverw
It deals with people here illegally... 12 states and DC let people who are
undocumented get a driver licenses.
[https://immigration.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=...](https://immigration.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=005535)

Then if the police stop someone, they just ignore the fact they are here
illegally. They call them sanctuary cities on the news usually.

Seems like their logic is it safer to have people who know how to drive
driving than driving illegally, even if they are here illegally. Then also if
someone witnessed a crime, they might not come to police due to fear of being
deported.

Kinda the same way states are allowing pot even though federally it's
illegal... The feds aren't going after states it looks though, I remember
hearing somthing Obama's justice department wasn't going to enforce it in
states that allow it. But Trump's administration could always change their
mind. Banks still can't let marijuana dispensaries do business with them
however, so they have to keep and haul around large amounts of cash. They
joked that some day one of them would get killed paying their taxes, and
they'd make a law named after them. High Profits was a good documentary on CNN
on this topic. Watched it on Netflix a few years ago.

Kinda interesting though, if you habor someone illegally and they murder
someone. That code mentions that you are also subject to the same punishment.
So if the mayor of a city allows illegals, and a illegal murders someone and
gets sentenced to the federal death penalty. That mayor could also be
sentenced to death too. Doesn't seem like the people in washington has ever
gone that far to ever do that however, but it seems possible from my
understanding.

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Tempest1981
Blame big business. California has a huge agriculture industry, which depends
on huge numbers of illegal immigrants each season. The industry wants to keep
these workers.

"Undocumented immigrants make up an estimated 10 percent of California's
workforce, and the work they do is often at the bottom rung of the wage
scale." \- [https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-03-06/californias-
undocumen...](https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-03-06/californias-undocumented-
workers-help-grow-economy-theres-cost)

[https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/in-an-
immigrat...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/in-an-immigration-
crackdown-who-will-pick-our-
produce/2017/03/17/cc1c6df4-0a5d-11e7-93dc-00f9bdd74ed1_story.html)

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mtraven
I invite all the Fox News viewers and others who take this BS seriously to
move out of this hellhole and go to states with a higher quality of life rank
such as Mississippi (#6) or Arkansas (#7), and send us a postcard so we can be
jealous.

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purplezooey
Indeed the only good thing happening here lately, aside from contributing two
reasonably good senators, is how much one's house has appreciated. The traffic
now is almost unpassable in the BA.

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stick_monkey
“Worst air quality”, but only if you’re in Fresno. This ranking system seems
pretty flawed and biases it towards smell, very average states.

California has a lot of good and bad, and this ranking only looks at the bad.

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EggsOnToast
Things like weather and general natural beauty are often brought up when
discussing the pros of California living. I'd also argue in favor of our food
prices. Food, as a general good and not just staples like rice, is incredibly
cheap in the parts of the state that I've toured.

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EggsOnToast
I'm curious how much of this could also be related to cost of living. At a
glance of Wikipedia, California actually has the highest poverty rate of any
state once you account for the cost of living as I understand it. For the
curious, the adjusted poverty rate is 23.8%. That's huuuuge!

