I recently moved to California. Before i moved, people asked me “why are you moving there, its so bad?”. Now that I’m here, i understand it less. The state is beautiful. There is so much to do.
I know the cost of living is high, and people think the gun control laws are ridiculous (I actually think they are reasonable, for the most part). There is a guy I work with here that says “the policies are dumb” but can’t give me a solid answer on what is so bad about it.
So, what is it that California does (policy-wise) that people hate so much?
I feel like one of the problems with California is the Proposition system. Anyone can introduce a proposition to be put on the general ballot with enough signatures. Most of the far-reaching laws in California were put in place by propositions including Prop 65 warning labels and Prop 13 property tax caps. They generally have provisions that make them very hard to repeal by the state legislature.
With the rise of political ads and social media, it allows special interests and corporations to pass favorable laws. For example, Uber and Lyft put up Prop 22 to classify rideshare drivers as independent contractors and poured a ton of money into ads to convince voters to pass it. It needs a 7/8 majority in the legislature to repeal it. For context, the California legislature had previously passed a bill to regulate rideshare drivers as regular employees, requiring the companies to provide benefits.