> As it turns out, the problem was never California. The problem was that they just couldn't cut it in a competitive environment that doesn't coddle business owners.

These kinds of comments usually come from people who know nothing about running a non-trivial business.

Simple example: Only business owners/operators know about the city of Los Angeles Business Property tax.

What is it?

Most people would guess it's like the property taxes assessed on homes. Not so. Not even close.

This is a tax the city imposes on any business operating in or through the county. If you so much as drive through the county you have to pay it.

What do they tax?

Your desks, chairs, printers, computers, workbenches, tools, paper shredder, equipment (for example, all the machinery in a CNC shop). They even tax tenant improvements. If you lease a commercial space, paint the walls and perhaps build a few divider walls, they tax that. If you have cubiles, they will take the dividers. Etc.

"Business property", for lack of a better description, refers to all objects owned by the business, including things like the garbage cans under every desk.

Imagine paying taxes on your desks and computers to the city of Los Angeles FOREVER.

Surreal? Yeah.

Real? Absolutely.

Fucking crazy? Without a doubt.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Where do you think businesses get this city tax money from? Well, they add it to their cost equation and the prices they charge are adjusted incrementally in order to maintain the profit margin they might need to conduct business, R&D, grow, have a financial cushion (you know, pandemics and shit), etc.

If costs go up, prices go up.

If prices go up, you become less competitive with lower cost-basis geographies.

If you are less competitive with other geographies due to your underlying cost structure, buyers will migrate to providers in those regions.

That could be nationally or international.

When buyers migrate, you struggle to survive, might have to downsize or just move to those locations.

In the long run, jobs are lost and businesses leave.

Look what they are doing now in CA with regards to rooftop solar. They are going to kill off the entire industry.

> Most businesses leaving California report growing losses after they leave.

Stop watching CNN brother. You are in the Matrix. This is patently false. I know so many who have left and thrived in places like Arizona and Texas that I have probably lost count. Lots of these have taken valuable talent with them.

In our case, most of our business is international or aerospace-related. So long as we are in the US, it really doesn't matter where we are. You can't manufacture shit here in California anyway, the underlying costs are very high. The difference in cost structure for suppliers we have here and in other states is hard to comprehend unless you are ready to understand and accept the fact that imposing high taxes and high regulatory costs on businesses, in the long run, is highly destructive. Most people don't have a good sense of what business looks like under the hood, so, no, I don't expect most to truly understand this.

You might want to read this:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/adammillsap/2021/08/27/business...

and this:

https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2022/12/15/california-pulls-the-...

Watch this:

What's Behind California's 'Business Exodus'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dJ2ARP0J-E