I am a native to socal. I can say with all of my heart that it BY FAR is the best place to live in the USA. That of course is an uninformed opinion because I have not been everywhere in the USA but am fairly well travelled. CAR I do agree with your point that the shine has worn off for me personally because of how things have changed but I still would rather live here then anywhere else. No doubt about it.

As far as needing to be ahead of my neighbors or anything like that… I don’t care at all about that. I thing that all ties in to self esteem. If you get uptight about what others around you do or make then that is to bad. That is a you problem and life is to short to grind over how successful others are.

Someone on the thread brought up an interesting point about how if taxi cab drivers and others can do it, they can to. I think that is a good perspective. It is expensive to live here but it CAN BE much cheaper if you want to live in certain areas or are not hung up on having to buy a home.