N=1 but I make a good amount of money and left California for a zero tax state.

I feel like the quality of life is similar between the two. I don't feel like I was getting anything for the 13%+ extra taxes I was paying in California.

Nearly every California program has a huge amount of wastage. Take:

- High speed rail - 10x the cost of comparable European programs, still haven't built anything. Deadlocked by regulation, lawsuits, and poor planning.

- Or all the fraud in the hospice program, unchecked for years until some YouTuber just... went up to one and made a video.

- Or spending over $1M/homeless on housing the homeless and not being able to do so.

California is a lot of talk (regulations, state programs, taxes) coupled with extremely poor execution.

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OptionOfT an hour ago | parent | next [-]

I moved out of CA and overall, I myself get more for my money. All of those taxes didn't benefit me.

And just like you describe, it would've been ok if all of the tax money went to the people it was meant to be, but unfortunately CA is built upon n number of middle man companies who each take something off the top.

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andybak an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

> I don't feel like I was getting anything for the 13%+ extra taxes I was paying in California.

Some people might argue that it's not meant to be about what you personally get back. Social contract and all that...

I get your other points but this part was phrased in an unfortunate way.

	▲	solenoid0937 an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Of course you expect to get something back. Cleaner streets, better public transit, fewer homeless, less crime, etc. For example, I would be happy paying those 13% taxes in Switzerland, Japan, the Netherlands, Singapore! (Some even have lower taxes.) But I felt that money was being totally wasted in California. I genuinely think CA is something like <10% as efficient with tax money as these countries, and it's largely because certain groups take it as a personal attack when you imply tax inefficiency is a problem.