Don't overlook the millions of us who grew up there and decided that it wasn't worth the steep price to stay.
The costs of relocating our entire lives to other places, most of which have much less hospitable climates, was quite substantial. The price of staying in California was yet higher still.
"California Losing Residents Via Domestic Migration. For many years, more people have been leaving California for other states than have been moving here. ... On net, the state lost 1 million residents to domestic migration—about 2.5 percent of its total population."
Source: State of California (Legislative Analysts Office): https://lao.ca.gov/laoecontax/article/detail/265
The linked article is interesting. It paints a reasonably detailed picture of a California that is gaining wealthy, highly educated, older people, and excluding younger, less educated and poorer people. The actual demography doesn't really fit in with the image that most Californians have of their state. In the real world, the "huddled masses" are being pushed out of California at an alarming rate.
"Families with kids and those with only a high school education predominate among those moving from California to its top destination states" (same source)
Californians (and former Californians, as well as new comers) are demonstrating by their choices that California is increasing a home for the wealthy and privileged, and increasingly excludes the poor, young families, and the less educated.
