California is a trap.
A slow death by one thousand and one endless trifles. . .
TLDR; Writer hates dealing with idiocracy. California is one big androgynous curse.
My mom asked me the other day, “Are you having any second thoughts about leaving California?”
Pause. I had to think for a moment. . .
. . . then I suddenly blurted out, “I cannot wait to get the hell out of this place!”
Let me tell you just a little story about a man trying to leave. A little saga about the California 433A form (not to be confused with the IRS 433A form?!) and about why it is very difficult, despite the glorious weather, to abide by the numerous laws in the State of California. The State and County itself has a hard time following its own laws, so it is very difficult for the citizens too as well.
THE EXODUS; As mentioned in a recent article, we are attempting to move our goat farm out of state. In order for a potential buyer to receive financing for our current place we need the County to fill out a little known form called the 433A, which in essence, converts our Manufactured home from “personal property” to “real property”. California Lawyer-speak for sure. Bare with me for a moment. This topic is deep in the weeds.
State law requires:
“that on the same day that the Certificate of Occupancy is issued, the enforcement agency must record the 433A with the county recorder of the county where the real property is situated.”
Also:
“it is the responsibility of the local agency issuing the installation permit to complete and submit 433 forms.”
Why this form is needed by the State so that banks can finance such "real property" is a mystery to me and I am sure everyone involved too, but it is State law. Lawyers run this place, what can I say? It is one of the hidden benefits of living in an extremely “low-trust” society, the opposite of say, the Amish.
With this in mind we stopped by the county Building Inspectors office to get a copy of our Certificate of Occupancy since we had our final inspection back in November 2022 and to see if they needed any information from us to fill out the 433A forms. We are nice people who have been trying to follow the rules. Perhaps they had already submitted this form? Per State law of course. Perhaps we are supposed to help the enforcers? Who knows. We just wanted to ensure everything was above board.
Of course they had not done anything. . . they were just "so busy" these days. We are all are “so busy” these days. Filling out endless pointless forms of course. . . Wasn’t technology supposed to make life easier?
When we arrived she literally handed us the forms for us to fill out, despite at the top of the form it says in big bold letters “THE ENFORCEMENT AGENCY IS SUPPOSED TO FILL THIS OUT”.
It almost seemed like the lady wanted us to do her job for her. So we did. We are nice people like I said. We just wanted to get the hell out of this place.
"Can I have a copy of our Certificate of Occupancy?" I asked. “Nope”, the Building Inspector never completed our Certificate of Occupancy after our final back in November 2022. Literally 4 months they sit on something until someone asks for it. It is like pulling teeth in this state just to get Government workers to do their own jobs. You literally seem to have to hound them. . .
She looked the completed forms over when we were done filling them out, handed us a document to give to the County Recorder a few buildings away and said she would mail us a copy of the completed 433A and our Certificate of Occupancy to our address.
Phew… We thought we were done with all of this. We rejoiced.
One month later, nothing in the mail so I called them up.
The lady answers and says, “Oh I am glad you called, we need one more piece of information from you.”
Never-mind that in the last month she never once called me. She was just "too busy".
Never-mind that State Law says they are supposed to file this form with the State Housing and Community Development office within 30 days of the Certificate of Occupancy being filed.
Never mind that the Federal Reserve keeps changing financing rates and that a potential buyer is waiting for this form to be filled out by some bureaucrat who couldn’t find their way out of a paper bag.
No wonder our banking system is a mess with these folks in charge. It is almost like the State and County has so many laws they CANNOT even follow them correctly themselves.
Can you escape the cubicle dwelling bureaucrats anywhere in America? Ask yourself, Can you? Really? Or is navigating the endless maze of “low-trust” society laws that govern us just part of living in a "well-functioning” Democracy?
Like a bad relationship, I just wanted out!
I could say I'm leaving this State because of x, y and z reason, but it's really much more fundamental than that. I could blame the fact that the state is banning something I use all the time, the sale of new gas generators in the next several years. Our farm is off grid, we rely on them. I could blame the pathetic crumbling roads that we pay endless taxes and development fees to not fix. I could blame the several fires caused by homeless people out in my rural county in the last few years. I could blame this stupid form 433a I need them to fill out. I could blame all of this, but it really is none of those things that are making me want to leave. It's a much deeper thing, a much more philosophical thing, a much more notion of what it means to be human.
I realize that the world is going to keep changing during my lifetime and far after I'm gone, but it is the state and federal governments constant need to push that change ever faster that is really making me want to leave.
In our modern society we have forgot about the one thing that makes us special, our humanity, you know, us being humans. In a push for increased technical efficiency we are all being asked more and more to adopt ourselves to something that's simply anti-human, endlessly bureaucratic and completely in keeping with the will of the machine. A machine we have created to govern over ourselves. A machine which moves faster and faster with us in its own wake. Does life feel easier yet? Our own government seeks to enact change faster and faster so that none can keep up. Not even themselves. It’s no wonder so many are drugged up and/or homeless. Are you folks reading here keeping up with the cost of living and housing prices? Are you keeping up with the increasing mechanization of every aspect of our lives from banking to taxes to medical? Are you keeping up with the time-keeping of the machines? Go get some fentanyl already.
I'm leaving this state because I just can no longer keep up with it. I can’t keep up with its obsession with whatever increasing incessant change it needs, under the guise of being for the greater good, but at the end of the day even if it's for the good, I just can no longer keep up with its rate of change.
You simply cannot create firm roots in a sea of change.
My wife and I run two businesses here, successful ones that sustain themselves and bring a lot of great things to our communities. Our customer's will be very sad to see us go. Our businesses will have to be rebuilt from the ground up once again. This is not an insignificant amount of work.
Even if we wanted to stay I fear that our children will never be able to afford to live here either. We're leaving family behind and successful businesses too but in our case we think our children will have a brighter future because of it.
At some point you get sick of living in a place that treats good people like shit. It preys on honest people who will try to follow it's arcane rules, all while it promotes actual degenerate pieces of shit to the forefront of modern life. At some point you get sick of living surrounded by gated retirement communities with high prices and no young families left other than immigrants.
The one thing that makes California tolerable is the one thing that barely ever changes, The Weather. It's sunny-blue-skies 99% of the time, maybe a little extra rain every 5 years, and that is the only thing that makes the state tolerable because everything else changes constantly all of the time. Perhaps the whole globe has been infected by this need for change. Perhaps we have all been infected by it. If you're looking for consistency here in California or on the Coasts, perhaps even in America and on this planet, perhaps this is not the place for you.
It really make you think, How does the rest of the World suffer? What sort of weird forms do foreign banks and governments require its citizens to fill out in order to convert property from "personal" to "real"? Do they pay in rubles or dollars? Do they go bust every decade? Are we living in a desert of the real?
I mean really how do we compare to the rest of the world? Despite half the world sanctioning that big evil Russia, none of their banks have defaulted in recent times... Really makes you think. Maybe it is time to self-reflect a little on our own governance.
In the Golden Showers State of California they make the rules so that the nanny State can coddle the little people with stupid forms while letting the big banks go bust, then bails them out. For someone who is on the most part responsible it's extremely aggravating because while you're trying to keep up with being responsible in your own right you also have to keep up with the pointless things too, like 433A forms. You would think the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco would have its ducks in a row too with the big things.
Instead we spend time on the useless.
We see all the prop 65 warnings on everything from food you eat to everyday things that you touch. California Businesses paid over $14.58 million in attorney fees and costs related to Prop 65 warnings in one single year. 71% of all settlement money paid out that year in California. We are all treated like incompetent foreigners here, looked over by ambulance chasing lawyers carrying briefcases. Agent Smiths in our midst. It almost makes you numb to the fact that everything on Earth gives you cancer as the Prop 65 warning says! Perhaps so! Maybe they are indeed correct. We are all going to die after all. Maybe this is a sicker world we’ve created than I thought and these warnings are indeed needed on EVERYTHING. Thank you Prop 65 warnings. Thank you for telling me everything is killing me. . .
Good riddance and good luck Cancerous California. The beautiful weather is actually a trap that you have tricked out as some androgynous curse. The American housing crisis was manufactured per Boomers specifications to ensure someone gets rich off their bank owned homes and the young people are just suckers along for the ride filling out endless forms in perpetuity forever. This is most obvious in California but I am sure the cancer has spread to the rest of the country and perhaps the world as well. Please do change my mind in the comments.
Where oh where, do 433A forms not exist and I am not asked to do the Governments menial tasks for them? Less paperwork = more farming.
You know, A life more like this one:
AMISH REFUSAL TO FOLLOW BUILDING CODES @ peaceful societies.
