Why I Decided to Leave California for Good
After living in the city of angels for more than 10 years, I decided to leave the golden state for good
California, home to many of the greatest technology companies in the world, and the fifth largest economy on earth, is having a hard time keeping its residents from leaving. If you do a quick search on the internet, you will find that California exodus is one of the hottest topics in 2020, especially after COVID-19 hit the golden state.
In July 2020, I sold my Tesla Model 3, packed 2 suitcases of personal belongings, booked an one-way ticket to Hong Kong, and left California without looking back, just like many others.
I felt in love with California when I first visited the state in 2003 as an exchange student from Hong Kong. That’s why after finishing my graduate school, I came straight to California in 2019 without second thought.
I lived in Los Angeles for more than 10 years, so it was not an easy decision to break up with the city of angels, but I knew that it’s a decision that I had to make, and here are the reasons why I decided to leave California for good.
Taxes
Yes! After all the hard work, you finally made it! You are now a middle class making a six-figures salary, yet you are still living paycheck to paycheck. Have you ever wonder, where did the money go? If you are working for other people instead of self-employed, you have to pay the government first before paying yourself. How much do you pay depends on how much do you make and where do you live.
Out of all the 50 states in America, 41 have income tax. Among them, California has the highest tax rate in the nation, topping out at 13.3%.
Besides state income tax, California also levies state sales tax. Although it is a flat 7.5%, with various permutations of county and city taxes such as Los Angeles, you have to pay a whopping 10% sales tax for pretty much everything you buy. And remember, the money that you are spending is your after tax money, the money that you already paid a king’s ransom to Uncle Sam in order to take it home. All things considered, your purchasing power in California is only about half of your perceived income. That’s why you are living pay check to pay check despite your six-figures salary.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not against taxation. Tax dollar is absolutely necessary for a society to function. However, the fundamental purpose of a government is to serve its people. When you pay almost half of your hard-earned money to someone, wouldn’t you at least expect something in return?
But honestly I still have no clue what I was paying for. Potholes on the street outside my house are never filled. Stained mattresses on the 405 freeway are never picked up. And please don’t get me started on the homeless issue. But I will!
Homeless
Homeless issue is a national problem, but no one state is as bad as California, especially in Los Angeles. LA has sunshine all year long. There is literally no winter, so you can sunbathe or surf on Christmas Day if you prefer. The beautiful warm weather attracts a lot people moving there, including those who are homeless.
According to The Guardian, Los Angeles county had about 66 thousand homeless people as of January 2020, a 13% jump compared to the year before. And that was before the economic devastation brought by COVID-19.
When COVID hit, LA mayor Eric Garcetti worried about the spread of coronavirus among the homeless population would be uncontrollable like wildfire, so he provided mobile toilets and drinking fountains to improve the sanitation in homeless districts such as the Skid Row in Downtown Los Angeles. And where did the money come from? Bingo! Your tax dollars!
Garcetti’s move was like trying to put out a fire with gasoline. With these two basic human needs (drinking water & taking shit) being addressed, more homeless people were attracted to Los Angeles. The number of homeless tents suddenly doubled overnight outside my Downtown apartment on Main Street. With the WFH (Work-From-Home) policies that many companies implemented, Downtown Los Angeles becomes a reality scene of The Walking Dead. It becomes impossible to walk your dog without falling into the reservoir of homeless pee.
“Stop saying that! They are not homeless people! They are people who are experiencing homelessness. You should feel sorry for them!”
Well, when you live among them for 10 years and almost being attacked by them multiple times for no reasons, I am not sure how much sorry you will still have left for them. Let me be blunt. Pity is not going to solve the homeless issue, only effective actions from the government will do. I’ve already done my part of paying taxes, but the trend is moving in the completely opposite direction than it should be. Who should be blamed? Me or the hypocritical politicians?
Safety
Los Angeles has one of the highest crime rates in the country. According to NeighborhoodScout, LA’s crime index is 12 (100 is the safest). It is more dangerous than 88% of other U.S. cities.
Things only got worse after COVID-19 hit the city. According to NBC, between January and October this year, the number of murders increased by 25% compared to the same period in 2019.
Most of people are oblivious to all these facts until it really hits home hard. I was robbed twice in Los Angeles, one time on a Metro subway train at night and one time in a Chase bank parking lot under broad daylight. Police came, but instead of treating me like a victim, they saw me as an idiot. “Why did you take out your iPhone?” This question really pissed me off. I pay almost US$40k in tax a year and I can’t even take out my iPhone on a public place? It’s my phone, not my penis! You must be farting kidding me!
In the hindsight, I think the police was right. In a city where robberies can’t even make it to the local newspaper, you are the only one who can protect yourself. You are responsible for your own safety as well as your personal properties.
In fact, I should consider myself lucky. You can always get another iPhone or iPad, but you only live once. At least I am still breathing. Safety should always be anyone’s first priority. What’s the point of having everything in the world but don’t have the life to enjoy it?
Traffic
When Richard Branson asked Josh Giegel, the cofounder of Virgin Hyperloop, who is also my boss’s boss, why he left Virgin Galactic to start his own transportation startup, Giegel’s answer was very simple: “Traffic sucks.”
Giegel and I both lived in Hawthorne where the headquarters of Tesla and SpaceX are located. It is only 12 miles away from Downtown Los Angeles where our headquarter is based, yet it took us almost an hour to get to the office in the morning because of the notorious LA traffic.
Just like many other Los Angeles drivers, when I am behind the wheel in traffic, I am no longer human, but transform into an asshole. The combined farting effect in orchestra style of all the assholes on the 110 freeway will make the happiest person on earth suicidal.
“Why not take public transit?” I am glad that you asked. Although Los Angeles is a major metropolitan city, its public transportation system is ranked as one of the worst in the world. Trust me, for someone who also spent one decade living in Hong Kong, I know what a good transit system is supposed to look like, not to mention that I am actually a transit architect by profession.
To be fair, I did try busses and trains for a year or two. It saved me from the stress driving and kept me in human form. It also saved me money because our company had a plan that let me use my pretax income for public transportation expenses. However, don’t count on it to save you commute time because busses and trains barely come on time in LA and they also have to make multiple stops along the way. After that night being robbed on a Metro subway train by 3 teenagers, I switched back to driving.
Although most of us live like immortals, but we were all born with an invisible time bomb. Time is the most scarce resource in life and it shouldn’t be wasted on daily commute.
COVID
Any of the above reasons is good enough to leave the golden state behind, not to mention all of them combined. However, it was COVID-19 that pulled the trigger.
When the coronavirus first hit America, California was doing relatively well in the first couple months compared to other states such as New York. When our office announced the WFH policy on March 15th, California had less than 100 confirmed cases. Governor Gavin Newsom even lent our ventilators (which were in extreme shortage among the nation) to New York to help them fighting the pandemic.
However, things started falling apart in June. The number of COVID-19 confirmed cases continued to rise on an alarming rate, pushing California all the way up to the top of the national chart on coronavirus tracking. At the time of this writing (November 1st), it’s accounted for 10% of the total number of confirmed cases nationwide, and is on its way to be the first state reaching the devastating threshold of 1 million.
There is one silver lining in this terrible situation. The WFH policy as a result of COVID decouples myself physically from the office. This allows me to work remotely from anywhere in the world, except those countries on the blacklist. With many of the big tech companies in California such as Google and Facebook taking the lead on advocating permanent remote working, I can only anticipate that the California Exodus is only going to get worse.
It’s already more than 3 months since I left California, and I cannot be happier! Will I be back? It’s possible, but most likely not by choice. I love job in Virgin Hyperloop so much that I am willing to compromise anything else. If my company summons me back to the Los Angeles headquarters after the pandemic is over, you will see me turning into an asshole and farting on the 110 freeway again. But before then, I will take the time to practice some self control, in a place that I feel less stressful.
