Gyroscopic Investing

1NV35T0R (Greg) wrote: I understand the first three. How would you say it has a different culture?

Once you leave the coasts, the cultures are fairly similar: the standard semi-rural and suburban white culture. It's on the coasts that things really differ.

Coastal SoCal has an obsession with image, style, and fakeness (IMHO). Fake tans, fake boobs, plastic surgery, the whole film industry. The faux art scene is unbelievable. All image, no substance. If this is the kind of thing that gets you you, you would hate it there.

By contrast, coastal NorCal is the hipster capital of the USA and the tech industry dominates the local culture. Everyone works at some tech firm. The average level of intelligence is incredibly high. Single young men are the largest demographic, and there are few children or elderly people, and practically no women at all in many areas. It can be eerie.

MangoMan wrote: Why haven't you left then?

Family obligations.  My Gma really can't live anywhere else; colder weather would kill her (or technically, the pneumonia).  So I try to make the best of it for sarcastic life experience until I can finally leave.  And that will be a very glorious day!

Now, if I was actually upper class and had the ability the live in those areas in SoCal (i.e. coasts, Orange County, etc.) where I could afford to do so with like kind (what is that nowadays?!!), would I do it?  I don't think so.  Money cannot make up for what I consider to be the many defenciencies of California. 

MachineGhost wrote:

MangoMan wrote: Why haven't you left then?

Family obligations.  My Gma really can't live anywhere else; colder weather would kill her (or technically, the pneumonia).

Why not move her to Central Arizona or southern New Mexico or west Texas or somewhere like those places?

1NV35T0R (Greg) wrote: Why would you say North California is a different planet compared to South California?

I thought you meant South Carolina at first!  That would have been easy to answer.

The state capital of California is actually in the SF bay area, so they are really out of touch with SoCal.  The climate, topography and culture is vastly different.  To be crude, SoCal is like a Little Mexico and there are some cities where you literally won't see another white person.  Generally, the further south you go, the worse that can get, but you have to keep in mind wealth is always the great partitioner, so you can have tony expensive gated suburban enclaves north of San Diego (where you will see not only the traditional whites, but the emerging Hispanic middle/upper class).

I don't know where I would draw a dividing line between North and South.  I don't think it would work horizontally due to the Central Valley which is aggregarian and low income (for instance, Sons of Anarchy takes place where Lodi and Stockton would be in reality, although they don't literally film it there, they film it in north SoCal near a dominant white enclave).  Maybe it is just better to assume cultural similarity and stick with the Ventura to Vancouver axis which grows north to envelope NorCal.  There is a mountain range that divides the left from the right, the Cascades and Sierra Nevada I think.  That can be also read as liberal vs conservative too but obviously, middle class conservatives were among the white emigrations to other states except for the richer ones that stayed behind in Orange County.  Are there even any up in NorCal?  Heh!

SoCal is very materialistic; appearances/impressions matter and it crosses all socio-economic lines.  IMO, it's a legacy confluence of credit cards and mega-shopping malls originating in the virtually 100% white suburban San Fernando Valley in the 50's-60's in combination with the entertainment industry proximity, exacerbated by those 90210-style rich white people that stayed behind during the emigrations (in reality, the 90210 zip code is largely non-white and ethnic/foreign now) and perpetuated by foreigners moving here and imitating it (they are rabid for that stuff).  I don't know what NorCal is like in these regards but considering the junior high school clothing and hoodies inspired by Zuckerberg and his legion of wannabes, probably not a big factor.  It is SF after all.  A city famous for its liberal tolerance, hippies and slobs!

There's a smart guy that ran for office and wanted to carve CA into seven different regions or states.  He was probably onto something.  Not every region is always about skin color and socio-economic class; the local environment and conditions plays a role in shaping people's mentalities.

Oh yeah, I'd be remiss to not mention that SpaceX is headquarted in the LA area.  So that could be a future growth industry.  They have over 2000 employees.  Can't imagine why they would do it here but there must be a lot of aerospace talent leftover from all the military base closures (which BTW is another highly significant factor in destroying the middle class).

I'm convinced culture and family come before jobs and economics.  Blood is thicker than water.

Pointedstick wrote: Why not move her to Central Arizona or southern New Mexico or west Texas or somewhere like those places?

She's 95... not going to happen now!  No point in moving to Arizona or New Mexico, its the same hot killer climate.  Moving is very stressful, as you well know!  I've moved at least 11 times in my life.  I rather not do it again if I can help it (except to get the hell out of Dodge to a forever home).

Pointedstick wrote: Coastal SoCal has an obsession with image, style, and fakeness (IMHO). Fake tans, fake boobs, plastic surgery, the whole film industry. The faux art scene is unbelievable. All image, no substance. If this is the kind of thing that gets you you, you would hate it there.

By contrast, coastal NorCal is the hipster capital of the USA and the tech industry dominates the local culture. Everyone works at some tech firm. The average level of intelligence is incredibly high. Single young men are the largest demographic, and there are few children or elderly people, and practically no women at all in many areas. It can be eerie.

I love fake boobs! LOVE EM. I like natural boobs too though, so that may be a moot point. Tans... I don't see how you could avoid them in SoCal. Well-done plastic surgery is cool too, and it sounds like the docs in SoCal have plenty of practice. SoCal sounds wonderful on those points.

For some reason, I'm reminded of Dave Barry's famous essay "Can New York Save Itself?", in which South Florida's pros and cons are listed as follows:

MINUSES: The area is rampant with violent crime and poverty and political extremism and drugs and corruption and ethnic hatred.
PLUSES: Voodoo is legal.

The whole thing is hilarious. You can read it here: http://www.davebarry.com/gg/newyork.html.

MangoMan, That was the comedy post of the year so far. Thanks for the laughs!

Moving to California

I’m moving to California, June 1st.
For a month.

I rented an AirBnB condo in San Diego.  (little Italy / gaslamp district).    Here’s what I’m looking forward to:

1 - The neighborhood has one of the highest walkable scores in the nation.  Even higher than Manhattan and even higher than the Portland OR condo that I’m in now.

2 - Great condo at a cheap price - high rise, view of the bay.

3 - Easy train into Mexico

4 - I need to renew my passport.  San Diego has the best passport office I’ve ever used.  Even better than DC.

5 - I have a sister that lives in San Diego,  a mom in Palm Springs and an Uncle in Costa Meas.  I can use this move to catch up with all of them.

6 - I’m walking distance to Horton Plaza and the 24 hour fitness there is not too expensive for a one month membership - and it is one of the better ones in the country.  No rental car required.

7 - San Diego beaches in June.

8 - As an upstanding citizen from South Dakota, I don’t have to worry about state taxes or whatever local regulations apply.

9 - Close to an international airport for my July move.  Wherever that may be.

10 - I went to school at UCSD.  They have the best system of libraries that I’ve ever run across.  I’m looking forward to spending a few days getting lost amongst the shelves.

11 - My tan is fading from a month in the Pacific NW.  Time for a renewal.

12 - Sailing School.  Three great schools right on the bay.  I need to refresh my certificates.

I'll take Colorado or Minnesota. Those other states sound dumb as fuck.

So I have to ask the obvious: Why did you choose SD as your state of permanent residence? I know there is no state income tax, but there are six other states that also do not assess one. Knowing you from the forum, I assume you thoroughly researched this prior to making a decision.

My first thought was "Who else doesn't really have a permanent residence, but still needs one for legal purposes?"  That led me to full time RV'ers and people who cruise in their boats full time.  It turns out that South Dakota is far and away the largest home for RV'ers and Florida the home for cruisers.

I checked out SD and they have several great mail forwarding services, and the entire state is geared to help.  At the time, I still had a vehicle, and SD's process was clearly better for that.

SD allows you to use a private mail box as your permanent address on your driver's license.  Many states don't.

Very low auto insurance rates, and no need to have the vehicle there to register it in the state.

I also wasn't sure if I was going to be buying health insurance later or not.  SD's rates for the same policy were much lower than Florida's.

It took me all of six hours to:

establish residency
setup my forwarding service
get auto insurance
register my jeep
get a driver's license.
Open a local checking account
register to vote.

I used a place called Dakota Post out of Sioux Falls. They were super streamlined and walked me from office to office to office - even told me how to setup my hotel stay so that it would meet the state's residency requirement for my driver's license.  It's really geared towards the retired RV crowd, but it meets my needs just fine.  I enjoy getting their newsletters with tips for RV maintenance, good places to winter, etc

I imagine the competing places do much the same.

Pretty funny, MangoMan!  I wish I could find that one again that stereotypes all the negative traits of the different European nationalities.

+1 on the very funny Pug. Sometimes cliches are accurate as well.

I grew up and returned to the intermountain west (i.e. ID/NV/UT/WY) and where I grew up/live now we simply refer to California as that place where people move from to screw up the rest of the Western United States. Overall, two thumbs down from me on about half of the state. I simply would never EVER live there. As for visiting...

- Sierras - Awesome
- San Francisco - one of the great cities of the world
- Coastal Road (Highway 101) - amazing
- Way NoCal...think Oregon - very cool topography
- Monterey Bay area - very beautiful
- SoCal/LA...possibly the worst sh**hole on the face of the planet; there is absolutely nothing I like about it (OK, the weather is nice except for the summer)

[quote='Mark Leavy']San Diego beaches in June.[/quote]

Don't forget about June Gloom.

WildAboutHarry wrote:

Mark Leavy wrote:San Diego beaches in June.

Don't forget about June Gloom.

Yea, I think I outsmarted myself there.  I knew about that, but had forgotten.

I dunno, I think that June Gloom weather pattern looks pretty neat, myself. Interesting clouds are always nice.

WildAboutHarry wrote:

Mark Leavy wrote:San Diego beaches in June.

Don't forget about June Gloom.

It's been happening over the last two weeks.  Normally I would love it except I'm in the middle of seeding.  Climate change?

MachineGhost wrote:Normally I would love it except I'm in the middle of seeding.

Is that how your species reproduces?  :-)

Desert wrote: The one I remember about Europe is:

In heaven, you'll have:
a French chef
a German engineer
an Italian lover
a British policeman
and it'll all be organized by the Swiss. 

In hell, you'll have:
a British chef
a French engineer
a Swiss lover
a German policeman
and it'll all be organized by the Italians.

HB quoted that many years ago in his newsletter, although "engineer" was "auto mechanic" and "organized by" was "banker". Still the same basic idea, though!