Elon Musk’s threat Tuesday to move the headquarters of Hawthorne-based SpaceX and X, a social media platform based in San Francisco, to Texas is just the latest example of the rich and powerful trying to score political points by attacking the Golden State.
Musk blamed the move on legislation signed the day before by Governor Gavin Newsom protecting LGBTQ+ students from coming out by prohibiting school districts from requiring teachers to notify parents of their gender identification or sexual orientation. He also included his oft-repeated canard about San Francisco’s crime-ridden streets by saying that he “enough dodges a violent gang of drug addicts just to get in and out of the building” at X’s headquarters.
Trashing California has become a taboo for Republican politicians and wealthy business tycoons who don’t like liberal policies. San Francisco venture capitalist David Sacks described his city as a “cesspool” in a speech Tuesday at the Republican National Convention. Former President Trump has often described California as a dystopian hellscape, calling the state a “failure” and “a symbol of our nation’s decline.” The rhetoric has been so strong that a national survey conducted for The Times last year found that nearly half of Republicans believe that California is “not America.”
But this is a question for Musk, Trump and other GOP politicians and supporters who like to rag in our country: If California is so bad, why can’t you bring yourself to actually kiss it goodbye?
We have some ideas why.
Let’s start with our economic strength. California is the fifth largest economy in the world, stronger than India, Brazil or Canada. We are a large market with more than 39 million people, whose consumers and businesses are responsible for a large part of the country’s economic growth, trade and innovation. We are number 1 in revenue from tourism and the number of business startups. We have the largest technology industry in the country, and lead the country in manufacturing and agricultural production.
California is also a piggy bank for politicians, who fly in to raise campaign cash, even if they don’t do actual campaigning here. Trump’s disdain for California hasn’t stopped him from traveling to mansions and estates in Beverly Hills, Newport Beach and San Francisco to solicit money from wealthy donors. Trump has raised more donations for the 2024 presidential election here than from any other country, including his own.
We are also a source of money for red states such as Texas, Kentucky and Mississippi that depend on us because Californians send more tax revenue to the federal government than we return. This abundance is due to a large population, relatively young and many with high incomes.
And what about our universities, which Republican politicians have criticized as “woke” and allowing students to exercise their right to free speech by protesting the war in Gaza? Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCLA and Caltech and other world-renowned institutions have produced dozens of Nobel Prize winners and innovators who have started thousands of successful businesses that shape the global economy.
California is also setting an agenda for environmental protection. And although detractors in big business and politics regularly attack our strict rules as a strain on profits, they ignore how often regulations spur investment and growth in clean, renewable technologies that do not wreck the planet.
Musk should know. These companies were built using billions of dollars in government subsidies. Tesla alone has received more than $2.5 billion in California zero-emission vehicle credits, and has benefited from $436 million in consumer rebates for Tesla buyers and hundreds of millions more in other state tax credits to help environmentally friendly businesses that want to stay in California. The state’s climate policy is a big reason why California leads the nation in electric vehicle sales, with more than one-third of the state’s EVs — many Teslas — registered in the state.
This is hardly the first threat Musk, now a Trump endorser, has made, citing California’s labor protections, environmental standards or enforcing pandemic health restrictions. Whether it’s bluster or substance remains to be seen. Musk previously announced that he would move Tesla’s headquarters to Texas and close its Fremont, California, electric car factory in order to expand operations in the Golden State.
Of course California faces the same problems as other places, and problems with affordable housing, homelessness, drug abuse and pollution are magnified by its size. But we are proud to live in a place that tries to deal with our shortcomings fairly and freedom is not only determined by the ability of the rich and business interests to do what they want. In California, we know that freedom also comes from other priorities that we value: safe workplaces, decent wages (our $16 minimum wage is more than twice Texas’), access to abortion, LGBTQ + rights, a healthy environment and the safety of gun violence.
The California GOP bashers will certainly continue to spout their supposed revulsion for our country as long as they think it makes sense. But he will not leave us. We have a lot to offer.
