People love making California a poster child for things, but gonna be blunt here: this tax thing is almost straight up BS. Calculated state tax burdens in the US vary between around 7% to 14% (the exact numbers vary between sources), but this is roughly how it boils down:
1: California is about #10 out of 50 states for total tax burden. That’s not great, sure, top 20%, but:
2: If you really want to bi**h there are better targets, like New York. California’s bill is basically “high median”, it’s not actually a gross outlier.
3: In sales tax specifically, again, California is not an outlier and it’s not their fault eBay has to chase down people across state borders to pay it, so basically this whole thread was based on a false premise.
People with axes to grind love pretending that California is some kind of socialist hellscape and a failed state, but this one state has the fifth largest economy in the world. California’s GDP is higher than India’s, for crying out loud. I’m not going to pretend that they’re doing everything right, but, sheesh.