• boaratio@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

      I hate to admit this, but I used to listen to the Adam Corolla podcast years ago, and he had Newsom on as a guest when he was lieutenant governor of California. At the time, he claimed that the biggest issue facing Californians was being unbanked. Like payday loan companies were the worst threat.

      • GraniteM@lemmy.world
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        8 hours ago

        Newsom was Lt. Governor of CA from 2011-2019. I am not Californian, and I don’t know what they’re dealing with outside of the seemingly-constant wildfires, and those seem pretty fucking bad, and I’m sure there are some other pretty terrible things Californians have to deal with, too.

        That said, payday loan companies deserve to get spit-roasted by the Devil and the Devil’s angriest pet donkey in the deepest bowels of Hell.

        • eli@lemmy.world
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          7 hours ago

          As a Californian, the state is absolutely huge and I have never been affected by any of the wildfires and frankly I doubt more than 1% of the population has even been affected directly by the fires. It’s a completely overblown issue. Does it suck? Yes. Does the media make it seem the entire state is on fire 24/7? Yeah. Don’t believe the media.

          The real issues Californians face are:

          • Housing/Zoning/NIMBYs
          • Public transportation
          • ISP services(or lack thereof)
          • Huge population(traffic, cars, etc), of course some areas are worse than others

          We do have pretty cheap groceries as long as you don’t shop at Target or Pavilions. Costco, WinCo, Aldi’s, etc. all have great pricing compared to other posts I see from around the country. Same goes for gas. Costco is around $3.50-$4.00 a gallon(for 87) for the past couple years. But the Chevron or Shell down the street is $4.50-$5 a gallon.

          Taxes are also overblown. Everyone looks at our marginal rates and go “so high!” but never calculate what their effective rate is, which is usually much lower.

          And then people love to bring up “the homeless” like there’s a camp on every street corner. Like yeah, maybe in LA. But for my city I have only seen the occasional pan handler on the freeway off ramps, which I doubt are even homeless since I’ve seen at least one leave their corner and go to their SUV in the nearby parking lot and drive away at the end of the day, like it’s a job for them.

          We have our issues, the state is far from perfect, but I’d rather be here in Cali than any other state at this point.

          • AA5B@lemmy.world
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            5 hours ago

            A few years back the Boston globe did an expose on panhandlers and yeah, there are scammers and you need to recognize them but most people in need are truly people in need.

            My take on it was that aggressive panhandlers in prime locations (major tourist spots, intersections with chronic backups) are most likely scammers. People sitting quietly looking defeated are in need. The hard part is deciding whether/how to help all those in between, but it’s good to remember that most people who look homeless are homeless

            Then there’s that weird guy who approached to talk about his knife, probably to try to steal my dog while technically not threatening - I so regret not calling police

            • eli@lemmy.world
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              3 hours ago

              Oh for sure, I try to keep cash on me for the ones I know truly are homeless. Sometimes I need to do late night grocery runs and the dude hanging out in front of a grocery store at 10pm isn’t a scammer. If I don’t have cash I usually offer to buy something, usually grocery stores have those pre-made sandwiches.