For the past 33 years I’ve lived no where else but LA. And even though I’ve loved living here literally all my life, I think it’s time to move on. Things are not what they used to be and they keep getting worse here in the state of California. Let me share with you 5 reasons why this state is done.

I grew up in pretty rough neighborhoods when I was a kid. Ranging from cities like Lynwood, Inglewood, to South Central LA. All areas that were pretty well known for having high crime and a lot of gang activity.

When I turned 18 my parents decided to move to Arkansas for cheaper housing. I on the other hand made my first big adult decision and stayed. At the time I had no plan, no job, no car, nothing really, but I knew I wanted to stay. So in a matter of weeks after they left I got a job, a place to stay and my mom decided to leave me her car. Best decision I ever made as I was forced to figure out how to make it on my own. It was not easy, but it made me grow up quick.

But despite all the hard times I faced in my early adult life, I always had Cali and I defended it as my home. Talked about how great the weather is and how there’s so much to do here. How there’s so much opportunity, an abundance of jobs, all sorts of food and restaurants you can go to. That was me glorifying this state and refusing to even entertain the idea of moving.

Well then I grew up, got married and started a family. And I came to realize that it ain’t about me, it’s about the life I can provide for my family. Then 2020 happened!

After analyzing how the golden state was really doing, I started waking up to the reality of the situation here. And I’ve decided that this is not a great place to thrive and raise a family anymore. Let me share with you why.

Political Climate

There used to be a time when picking a political party or a president was no different than having a favorite Sports Team. You could argue about which players on your team were the greatest and which players on the opposing team sucked. We would watch the game go down, your team vs mine, we’d talk smack during the game. Maybe my team won or your team won, one of us would be happy and the other one pissed off. But an amazing thing would happen right after, we would move on and go get something to eat.

There was no canceling each other or  removing one another from each other’s lives. At the end of the game, we were still cool because the friendship was more important than the stupid game. Unfortunately that isn’t the case in California anymore, especially in LA. If you’re a Republican, you’re automatically marked as a bigot, racist, blah blah blah, you know the rest. And if you’re a Democrat here in LA, you shine bright like a diamond. No one will cancel you unless you say anything remotely conservative.

I don’t know about you, but I treat all people the way that I wanna be treated. Even if I don’t agree with your beliefs, your lifestyle, whatever, it don’t matter. Just because I don’t agree with everything that comes out of your mouth, doesn’t mean I should treat you with disrespect.

I’m not a fan of this politically correct society they’ve been forming here where you have to walk on egg shells because you might offend somebody.   It reminds me of that movie Demolition Man where every time Sylvester Stallone said a curse word, he got fined for cursing because that’s just how PC that society was.

Cost Of Living

The cost of living here in California is insane, especially in LA county. If you wanna buy a home out here expect to pay somewhere between 500k to close to a Million dollars or more. Depending on the area you want to live in, the prices can vary greatly.

Apartment costs aren’t any better. Again, it depends on the area, but on average you can expect to pay about 2k to 2.5k for a 1 bedroom apartment here in LA. That’s not counting utilities and other monthly expenses.

Now I know what you’re probably thinking, yeah the cost of living is high, but jobs pay a lot more because of that. That may be true to an extent, but if you’re making 100k a year and you spend about 36k on rent alone, you add on taxes, car payments and other necessities, what are you actually left with? This is why I’ve heard horror stories of people in the Bay Area that work for big tech companies making 120k a year, but live out of their car because the cost of living is so high, they can’t  afford an apartment. At least not without moving in with about 10 other people and sharing living space.

That may work when you’re a bachelor, but when you have a family, it’s a different story.

Lockdown Restrictions

Look I’m not here to argue whether this virus is real or not. But I will say this, I know several people that have had it and the symptoms have varied. I have family members right now that live in another state struggling with this virus. So the evidence points to this thing being real for sure. But everyone I know that has had it, they’ve survived. Some of them had very minor symptoms. The ones that got it the worse tell me it really sucked going through it. Almost like a very strong flu (hey whatever happened to the flu anyways?)

My point is this, is this really a pandemic that’s killing people off like the Black Plague? Or is it being exaggerated to put fear in us? There’s other states that are taking safety measures like masks and all that, but they’re not doing a lockdown. Yet we don’t get any details on the amount of deaths caused by this thing, just the amount of cases reported. Interesting!

Here in California though they are putting restrictions on small businesses with a few employees, but big chains with 100s of employees are allowed to stay open. How does that make sense? On top of that, our tyrannical governor, Gavin Newsom has enacted curfews on us and limitations on our holiday celebrations. Such as no one should be out from 10pm to 5am cuz we all know the rona only comes out at night like a freakin vampire. I guess it really is allergic to the sun.

But think about it, this dude is trying to tell you how to run your own home. How many people you can have over? That you should be wearing masks in between bites while eating in your home. Yet while he gets caught at a fancy restaurant with a gang of people all around him, no one wearing a mask. If the rona is as bad as they say it is, why are these politicians going about their business like usual, getting caught, while they place rules on us that they’re not even following? If I went outside and saw somebody coughing up a lung and their skin started melting, guess what, I would stay inside and tell everyone to stay inside too. But that’s not what I’m seeing when I walk out there.

These restrictions are not helping anyone, they are making people even sicker. Mental health issues and suicide rates are spiking. People are not meant to live in isolation, but it seems like California doesn’t really care.

Dying Businesses

With the lockdowns I just mentioned, so many businesses are closing down. They have no funds to hold them over to pay for their expenses like rent, utilities, and employees. People are getting let go simply because the small business owners can’t keep going like this. Like I mentioned earlier, big chains continue to remain open. Restaurants are only open for takeout or delivery. Gone are the days when you could take your family out for dinner or go on a date with your wife. At least in California.

Theatres are literally closing down and filing for bankruptcy. Disneyland and theme parks, closed with thousands of employees let go. We were planning on taking my 2 year old son to Disneyland this year, but nope. He might not ever get to experience that. I don’t know what’s gonna happen. There’s a lot of experiences that are being deprived of us here. We can’t even go to a park.

If you’re in LA proper, the mayor just released his orders that are even more tyrannical than the other idiot. Apparently, he wants to just Cancel Everything. No big deal right let’s just not live our lives anymore. I wonder what he’ll be doing for Christmas and New Years. I’m sure he’s gonna be in his mansion wearing a mask while eating frozen dinners on a tv tray. Because of course they practice what they preach.

Taxes

I remember the first paycheck I ever got after starting my first job. I was making like 6 bucks an hour working 40 hours a week and I did the math for my first 2 week paycheck. 80 hours times 6 bucks, $480. The Math was flawless and I said to myself, man 480 is not half bad for an 18 year old until I actually looked at the check and saw the real number. $352 and some change. They taxed me about $130 and I was pissed. No one told me how much taxes I would pay. As I got older I’ve continued to pay more and more and taxes, that is until I got some dependents. Another good reason to start a family.

Paying taxes sucks already no matter what state you live in, but paying taxes in California feels like high way robbery. We have the highest income taxes of almost any state and guess what they wanna raise them even more. You see politicians will threaten to only raise taxes on the rich, but what they fail to realize is that the rich, have options. They can pick up and move to another place because guess what, they’re rich.

So what happens when rich people leave and there’s no more rich to tax, well they start taxing the middle class because you know, you can’t go to the French Laundry without some taxpayer money.

“Hey G, but what about the rich people that don’t decide to leave?”

Good question my young inquisitive philosopher. Well then the rich person has to incur that cost on us. Because if he owns a grocery store and makes over 400k a year and has to pay over 50% in taxes, then guess who’s milk is getting more expensive?

Look don’t get me wrong, I know that taxes are important. And I don’t mind contributing as long as the money is being used in a way that benefits our society and elevates our quality of life. But the reality is, we have more homelessness now than ever before. A lot of our roads are horrible, our schools suck, air quality is bad, traffic is ridiculous. What the hell are they doing with all the money we’ve already given them? Why should they be allowed to have more of our money?

Alright I’m done. If you live in Cali and you feel my pain, think about it. If you don’t live here and you’re thinking about moving to Cali, do yourself a favor and really think about it.

Until next time my fellow Alpha Dad,

• G. Vidal