Having worked with both, I often feel like even the politicians and high ranking state functionaries in Cali are very similar to German ones in their attitudes. Haha.

Its not all bad though, just there's a lot of waste that isn't getting addressed. Lots of ambition. Not always of the kind that actually helps people.

optimism

You remind me of a pattern I see from conservativea in Texas. Everytime I visit they talk like California is a communist hell hole where I pay a massive amount more in taxes. They talk Like it is North Korea. In reality it is more like a European country. I wish it wasn't but the reality is that Texas and most other states for many people aren't massively different. Few actually do the work to compare and figure out how much their choices are costing them. The size of the gap might surprise many.