California -  A Wonderful  Place to Live

California’s a wonderful place to live – if you happen to be an orange.

Fred Allen (1894-1956), American Comedian

California is a wonderful place to live – if you happen to like warm weather, are a Democratic politician,  aspire to be an actor or television star,  crave  to be part of the California high-tech Silicon Valley Community,   if you are of Hispanic heritage – 30% of California speak Spanish as their primary language)or if you’re an observer of the good of ObamaCare – the number of uninsured there has dropped by 40% - and the bad – premiums are scheduled to go up an average of 13% in 2017.

Although the California economy is the 6^th largest in the world if you think of it as a nation,   life is not so wonderful for small business,  who are exiting the state in record numbers to adjoining states and places like Texas and Florida.    The reasons for their departure are self-evident – the nation’s highest personal income tax at 13%,  the most regulated business sector,   a high cost of living and property,   fear of wild fires and shortage of water during its record drought, and unusually heavy health care expenses, which are causing big insurers to pull out of the state.

Still California for most  people remains  a great place to live.  It has over 39 million residents ,  a $2.4 trillion economy,  world class universities like Stanford and the University of California,  and the U.S.’s most widely known and admired private health care plan in Kaiser Health Care. And it’s a huge climatically diverse state, the 3^rd largest geographically after Texas and Alaska.   You can always find something in California to like and to escape to,  it’s a great place for oranges,  other fruits, and nuts,, and for servers, transistors, and apps.   You have a choice: love it, move elsewhere inside it,  or leave it.