Texas vs California

[tripleh]

California has a huge homeless problem. You don't really see that in Texas. California gets to many tech giants in an area causing rent and prices to go up. Hurting alot of the neighborhoods there. California politicians seem more focused on Trump then actually helping there state with its homeless issue. Now imagine if all the illegals get sent to sanctuary cities. California is gonna be a heavily populated state if it happens.

[Kokolums]

Hurricanes can actually strike California. Its just really rare.

Roughly 90% of California summers have this massive dome of high pressure that sits just off the southwest coast. This thing effectively blocks any hurricanes from entering. (This excludes those that ride up Baja California and get severely weakened before they MAYBE graze SoCal. We're talking DIRECT hits from the sea at maximum power) HOWEVER, the high pressure dome is almost always absent during El Nino summers. El Ninos might occur roughly once every 10 years. With the dome of high pressure missing, any storm can wander into southern California during the summer, and you can get cooler, wetter summers in San Diego / Los Angeles overall. As a rough estimate, there is a 10% chance of a hurricane strike on SoCal during an El Nino summer. 10% of 10% is 1%. That means a rough estimate is 1 hurricane will strike Southern California every 100 years.

The last hurricane to hit Southern California was the 1858 Category 1 San Diego Hurricane
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1858_San_Diego_hurricane

It is estimated that if such a storm hit San Diego today, it would do $500 million in damage.

The last Tropical Storm to make a direct hit on Southern California was the 1939 Tropical Storm which made landfall on Long Beach, CA.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1939_C...tropical_storm



It killed anywhere from 45-93 people.

Hurricane Linda was a full blown category 5 hurricane that formed in 1997 during El Nino. At one point, it was projected to land in Los Angeles. A category 5 would probably destroy the entire city as it is not built with hurricanes in mind. It was projected to weaken before landfall (although hurricanes are also free-moving and could wander back out, re-strengthen and return). In this case, a miracle occurred and it just changed course before landfall and wandered back out to sea to die peacefully.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurric...nda_%281997%29

[Stelio Kontos]

Yeah but if you choose Texas:

Tou'll drink water polluted by fossil fuel corps since they gained the rights to drop their waste water in drinkable waterways.

Funny enough, I couldn't drink the tap water in SoCal. It was so bad it even ruined my pots.

[God Save The King]

are you on drugs? state taxes have a massive impact. lol id know, ive lived in WA, CO, and now CA

Well this year it is a bit of a bigger difference since Trump specifically tried to harm blue states with his tax policy, but historically the difference was a few percent state to state.

As an example, the median Californian household pays around $2k in state taxes on their median income of $72k. Assuming they do not qualify for anything beyond the standard deduction, they pay $2k more than Texans overall. Which is around 2.7%. Not a "massive" impact. Assuming you're one of the 75% of Californians who make above 70k who do itemize their deductions, that $2k state tax would be deductible meaning you pay around $1.6k more than Texans. Which is around 2.2%. If you own property at the median of $550k and paid a median property tax of 0.74%, you'd be able to deduct another $4070, meaning you'd only pay $1.1k more than Texans, which is around 1.5%.

If you look at the poor people in the state, households who make say $40k and do not itemize, they'd pay around 1.5% more pf their income than Texans, even smaller. Then there's all the services that CA people get to enjoy that just don't exist in Texas due to a lack of state & local income.

If you're very wealthy, sure you end up paying a bit more percent of your income in taxes. However for around half of Californians, it's a few percent at best. So either you've done your income taxes wrong in this state, or you're being overly hyperbolic. I've lived and paid taxes in California, Texas, Pennsylvania, and Washington. The difference is always around 2% for me.


Edit: Something else I forgot to mention, wages in Texas are about 21.3% lower than in California, so in order to actually take home more money, you'd need to be earning around 25% more than the median Texan (around $14.1k more). So you might make more in Texas if you're in the rare field where your earning tends to transcend state lines. Otherwise you might pay a smidge less in taxes, but make a massive amount less (I personally consider 20% massive)

[Grimbold21]

Doesn't.Texas have better food

[JDL49]

State taxes really do not matter much since the IRS allows you to deduct state taxes from your income tax. Californians may pay a bunch of state tax, but Texans pay a bunch more federal tax to even it out.

Not exactly right. The Feds allow you to deduct only the first $10,000 and of course that's only if you are itemizing your deductions. Generally speaking the only people who itemize anymore have high incomes and own mortgaged real estate. Does that sound like many of us ?

There has been a great deal of anguish recently in states like CA & NY because their local taxes far exceed the 10 grand limit and large portions are no longer are deductible on Federal Taxes.

[FuxieDK]

Which would you rather live in if you had to?

Personally neither but if I had to choose.

First of all, I'd had to forced by gun point, to live in USofA..

That said, California. Austin is the only semi-normal place in Texas, where California have atleast a handful of cities, that are semi-normal.

[God Save The King]

Not exactly right. The Feds allow you to deduct only the first $10,000 and of course that's only if you are itemizing your deductions. Generally speaking the only people who itemize anymore have high incomes and own mortgaged real estate. Does that sound like many of us ?

There has been a great deal of anguish recently in states like CA & NY because their local taxes far exceed the 10 grand limit and large portions are no longer are deductible on Federal Taxes.

Yeah I already mentioned you only deduct with higher income and property. I also mentioned I was referring to historical data. All the current issues with the Trump tax nonsense expire in the next 6 years anyway (higher standard deduction, local tax caps, etc). There's also a solid chance that it just gets reversed in a few years anyway.

[Shelly]

Doesn't.Texas have better food

Probably about equal actually - depending on where you are in the state.

Throughout SoCal you can find just about any eatery you can imagine. Past Sacramento it's a bit iffier though the North Coast has some spectacular seafood and if you like to fish you can get beautiful fresh salmon in season among the bounty of other ocean fish. (Rock fish make the BEST fish and chips.)

Meanwhile ethnic food is spread out across the states pretty well at this point with every major city having just about everything.

Now Texas does have "Texas Style BBQ" but honestly it's not that hard to get mesquite wood and do your own that's as good as most generalized small town establishments.

Meanwhile CA has wine, cheese, beef, acres upon acres of fresh produce including fruits and nuts.

So if you like eating stuff that's a bit more processed Texas might be to your pallet, but for just fresh produce it's very hard to compete with the offerings of the Central Valley - at least until they pave the whole thing over with suburbs.

Anyway, I think CA is better just by virtue of being able to get to just about every major part of the state within a day. Easy to hit San Diego, LA, Sacramento or San Francisco just by driving. Meanwhile Texas just has a lot of empty space that may speak to the soul but also speaks to falling asleep while driving.

So my vote is Left Coast, Best Coast!

[Puupi]

Northern California.

Otherwise Texas.

[NihilSustinet]

Cali. not even a question. there is literally nothing in the world that would compel me to move to texas. one of the worst states in the union.

- - - Updated - - -

First of all, I'd had to forced by gun point, to live in USofA..

That said, California. Austin is the only semi-normal place in Texas, where California have atleast a handful of cities, that are semi-normal.

even austin isnt that great because the city is so gerrymandered that the left-wing residents have no power over their own city, its all delegated to the rednecks in the surrounding hills.

[Mormolyce]

hmmm. voted texas. cause i can't tolerate california's extremism.

but, northern california's supposedly not that bad.

I gather that you'd be just as uncomfortable in Texas' main cities, which are quite liberal.

What you really want is to live in a shack in the woods with two cousins named Dave who are missing half their teeth. You can find shacks like that in rural California and Texas, I think.

[horbindr]

the worst thing i've heard about california is that they have high taxes and cost of living. but that's high by US standards it's probably equal or less than what i currently have, and cost of living is probably talking about big cities. probably also easier to get a job in my field in cali.

texas on the other hand seems like a place you would move to if you were rich perhaps. not a fan of the quite lax lethal self defense laws and stuff like that there either. also heard it's basically a wasteland outside of the major cities, but never looked into that.

but honestly the only situation i'd probably ever consider living in the US is if it came with citizenship attached, but i think even with marriage you don't get that instantly.

[shadowmouse]

I've lived in both states, albeit years ago. Of the two, I'd take Texas -- off in one of the smaller cities like Amarillo or Wichita Falls.

[Aresk]

I enjoy the Pacific Northwest, so northern California definitely. I don't think I could survive a Texan summer.

[dacoolist]

Texas easily. I've lived in both - TX by far has better laws, better living, better food .. I won't even start talking about the people - I don't need to even BRING that in lol

[Rasulis]

Hurricanes can actually strike California. Its just really rare.

Roughly 90% of California summers have this massive dome of high pressure that sits just off the southwest coast. This thing effectively blocks any hurricanes from entering. (This excludes those that ride up Baja California and get severely weakened before they MAYBE graze SoCal. We're talking DIRECT hits from the sea at maximum power) HOWEVER, the high pressure dome is almost always absent during El Nino summers. El Ninos might occur roughly once every 10 years. With the dome of high pressure missing, any storm can wander into southern California during the summer, and you can get cooler, wetter summers in San Diego / Los Angeles overall. As a rough estimate, there is a 10% chance of a hurricane strike on SoCal during an El Nino summer. 10% of 10% is 1%. That means a rough estimate is 1 hurricane will strike Southern California every 100 years.

The last hurricane to hit Southern California was the 1858 Category 1 San Diego Hurricane
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1858_San_Diego_hurricane

It is estimated that if such a storm hit San Diego today, it would do $500 million in damage.

The last Tropical Storm to make a direct hit on Southern California was the 1939 Tropical Storm which made landfall on Long Beach, CA.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1939_C...tropical_storm



It killed anywhere from 45-93 people.

Hurricane Linda was a full blown category 5 hurricane that formed in 1997 during El Nino. At one point, it was projected to land in Los Angeles. A category 5 would probably destroy the entire city as it is not built with hurricanes in mind. It was projected to weaken before landfall (although hurricanes are also free-moving and could wander back out, re-strengthen and return). In this case, a miracle occurred and it just changed course before landfall and wandered back out to sea to die peacefully.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurric...nda_%281997%29

The West Coast Pacific Ocean temperature is too cold for hurricanes. Hurricanes need warm ocean water. The perfect temperature for hurricanes would be around 26C (78.8F) or higher. Even in the summer, the water temperature along coastal California rarely get any warmer than 70F. I do mean rare. So Pacific Ocean hurricanes from Hawaii and Mexico have a tendency to lose their energy and weaken as they approach the California coast. On the other hand, the Gulf of Mexico with its warm water (which can get up to 100F in the summer and late summer) creates the perfect source of energy to feed Atlantic Ocean hurricanes. Basically if an Atlantic hurricane makes its way into the gulf, there is a 90% chance that it will make landfall.

That's why the gulf coast states get hit by hurricanes making landfall on an annual basis. While the west coast is looking at probably one every hundred years.

[dacoolist]

Also the forum here has MASS amounts of people from CALI - also cali outnumbers us in TX by a LONG shot so it's pretttttty baised considering the forum is based off of WOW and most people live in CALI to begin with.. but LMAO

[Rasulis]

California has a huge homeless problem. You don't really see that in Texas. California gets to many tech giants in an area causing rent and prices to go up. Hurting alot of the neighborhoods there. California politicians seem more focused on Trump then actually helping there state with its homeless issue. Now imagine if all the illegals get sent to sanctuary cities. California is gonna be a heavily populated state if it happens.

You weren't looking in the right place. Here are some pics from Dallas. I can show similar scenes from Houston and Austin.

[derpkitteh]

I gather that you'd be just as uncomfortable in Texas' main cities, which are quite liberal.

What you really want is to live in a shack in the woods with two cousins named Dave who are missing half their teeth. You can find shacks like that in rural California and Texas, I think.

it's possible to have a view of the world where you don't want either of those types forcing their worldview on you.