> the ports, the farmland, Hollywood, and Silicon Valley serve to paint over the rot.
In what universe are these things a coat of paint? In California's economy, these things are the whole damn tree: the roots, the trunk, the leaves, all of it. It might have a couple rotting branches, but it yields so much fruit that people just don't care.
They're gold mines. Even if you're a mismanaged mining company, you still have guaranteed access to gold. That is until you've mined all the gold, and then what? Oh, what's that? You spent all the money you made and your business is designed in a way that it only can survive when there's a gold surplus? Well, now.
What California has is not the norm. Other states and countries might have one of those things; maybe they've got ports, or maybe they've got farmland in an optimal climate, or they've got something else. But until things change (which they will), no one has been able to have Hollywood or Silicon Valley as well as everything else. Once those things are sufficiently dissolved and others drink from our milkshake, it will suddenly be apparent how few of the people in California cared, to use your words; when the money dries up, it will be apparent how few things we actually have better than other parts of the country, as well as other countries. It's easy to ignore outdated and crumbling infrastructure, the crime and the homelessness, and budget being utterly wasted when the money keeps rolling in and the beach is no more than an hour away.
In what universe are these things a coat of paint? In California's economy, these things are the whole damn tree: the roots, the trunk, the leaves, all of it. It might have a couple rotting branches, but it yields so much fruit that people just don't care.