Do you think that some people move to California for the sole reason of gay rights and marijuana legalization?
I’m under the impression that California is somewhat overpopulated (correct me if I’m wrong) and I was wondering what do you think:
If every state were to legalize gay marriage, etc. and marijuana, would California become less overpopulated, thus lowering the cost of living there?
I’m just wondering what you think too because I was wondering about this today. Thanks!
Other states have legalized marrijuana, and there are states with far more gay rights than Cali (IOWA?) so I think your assumption is false.
Let’s hope so.
Gay rights and marijuana have little if anything to do with one another. Rednecks would probably move TO California if they were the only state which outlawed gay marriage.
There is no correlation to social engineering and population pressures.
Gay marriage isn’t legal in California….either is marijuana for anyting other than medicianal use (yet).
probably, they want more freedom
we have a few big cities and not enough jobs to go around, but we are anything but overpopulated
California is certainly more crowded than it used to be. I wouldn’t say it’s -overpopulated-. The big cities are growing, but there’s still plenty of country, mountains, forests, etc. It costs more to live here because housing is in demand, and there is a very low vacancy rate. But it doesn’t really seem crowded.
Gay rights, I would agree with you. I think it goes back to the Gold Rush. In 1848-49-50, people converged on California from all over the world. At the time it was far away from everywhere. To get here from the east coast you usually had to sail ’round the horn’, which took about 3 months. It was a shorter sail from Japan, China, The Philippines, etc. So it wasn’t just Americans who came, it was everyone.
Consequently, when California became a state in 1850, it was very tolerant and democratic. There were no old ruling families, everyone was about the same. That culture has remained in California all these years. California has always been very ‘cosmopolitan’, very tolerant and pluralistic. So the city gained a reputation for being gay-friendly and gays came to San Francisco knowing they could be among their kind. But so what? It is also Catholic-friendly and Hispanic-friendly.
As for marijuana, California is a ‘bellweather state’, meaning cultural trends begin here and spread through the rest of the country. Other bellweather states are Florida, Colorado, and Texas. We were the first state to allow medical marijuana, but that’s partly because we have an initiative process where citizens are allowed to vote on such things. If we’d left it to to the state legislature it would never have happened, because politicians are always afraid to look ‘soft on drugs’. And the initiative process goes back to those early days, another feature of a truly democratic (small-d) state.
There has been some discussion about legalizing marijuana and taxing it like 1000%. People would be glad to pay it because it would still be cheaper than it is now, and it would provide lots of revenue for the govt. But of course our state govt. will never do that and the discussions have all been outside of government. In a way medical marijuana skirts the issue because almost everyone can get a medical marijuana card and buy it for ‘medical purposes’.