When I first moved to California, the Golden State was like an oasis, with red-golden sunsets, wide-open spaces, lush greenery, opal blue waters, and grocery stores selling fruit I’d never even heard of. Back then, California felt like its own country, one where hard work could build a real life of joy and endless possibility.
Today, just a few decades later, many smart, capable people I know are quietly packing up for Texas, Colorado, Florida, or Georgia. U-Haul has more outbound rentals than almost any other state. Few who leave seem to regret it.
For most, it seems, the California Dream is over. However, I disagree. Despite all the mismanagement at the top, California is abundant in talent, resources, and good people fighting daily to make the Golden State a little bit better.
Rather than make a purely abstract or political argument to prove this, I want to share a few moments that communicate what the dream was like, how it’s fading, and how to rejuvenate it.
The superintendent of my first small-town California apartment, George, was the perfect example of a real Californian. A good man, he was handy with a wrench and quick with a joke and a smile.
By the time I knew him, George was dealing with a lot of health problems that came with aging. One day, he was on the bathroom floor under a leaky sink in my apartment. Wincing from the pain his bad back caused, he looked up and said, “Arjun, if I wanted, I could just stay home and collect disability—it’d pay more than this job. I wouldn’t have to work … ” Then his voice dropped, full of pain: “but then I couldn’t live with myself.”
He was a man with a work ethic. He chose self-respect over easier money, even as the system dangled a check in front of his face. It was heartbreaking.
California still has many people like George. Men and women working hard because it matters, not because the math always adds up. But when rent eats half your paycheck, gas is $4.60 per gallon (and that’s before the Iran conflict started), and electric bills are through the roof, that ethic gets tested.
And yet amongst the gloom, people can surprise you.
Last week, I was interviewing candidates for a role in the Bay Area. As has become standard, I asked each candidate, “Hybrid or remote?”
After months of everyone saying, “Remote, please,” I asked a man from the rural American South the same question. I was already typing “remote” in my notes. His face lit up with a big smile, and he answered, “I’d love to relocate to California. I love California.”
I froze. It was the first time in years someone outside the state had said that to me.
Yet the jobs are still here—Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, San Diego. People make it work because the opportunities are real.
The dream isn’t dead; it’s just uneven. Some see barriers where others see abundance.
I could wax eloquent about all the problems caused in this state by mismanagement in Sacramento—homelessness, quality of life issues, education, and a lot more—but the point is not to rehash what everyone already knows—it’s to give a true-to-life feel of what most don’t know about this great state.
To people from sea to shining sea of this great country who want to write California off, I urge you: don’t give up on it just yet.
California is full of people trying to make this place better. There are people fighting every day on school boards, city councils, town halls, and elsewhere, arguing for clean and safe streets, good schooling, better jobs, reasonable taxes, and good middle-class housing.
This Golden State is a behemoth of resources, talent, and smarts. But more importantly it is a place blessed with many genuinely good people.
Listen out for stories of real Californians—the roundtables feverishly looking for solutions, the George choosing pride over a check, the rare outsider who still wants in. The fundamentals are strong: innovation, hard work, the natural bounty that drew me across an ocean.
I still believe in California. Rejuvenating this place won’t be easy, but the California dream is dormant, not dead. Fixing this state must begin with seeing the grind, honoring dignity, and Californians fixing what’s in front of them.
We can win the California Dream back, one honest conversation at a time.
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