California’s economy is massive. If it was an independent nation it would be the fifth largest by GDP. In the Span of 150 years, California went from a far-flung Mexican territory with only 150,000 people, to arguably the most influential piece of land on the entire earth.

Yet today it has the highest poverty rate when adjusted for the cost of living, thousands of large companies are moving out, and for the first time in its history, it lost population in 2020.

How did California become so incredibly rich, just to become unaffordable for a vast majority of its population?