In a Thanksgiving post at Econlog Scott Sumner outlines the joys of living in Orange County:
After moving to Mission Viejo in late July, I frequently experienced brief moments of euphoria. Sometimes I would almost burst out laughing at how ridiculously convenient my life had become. Now that I’ve been here for 4 months, I’ve come to the view that southern Orange County has the highest living standards in the entire world, for any region of at least a million people. (Here I’m thinking of Orange County south of I-55.) As an aside, there are Tesla cars everywhere, at least 6 or 8 within a couple blocks of my house.
I base this claim partly on the fact that the region is affluent and very conveniently laid out. Other places that might have a similar claim to high living standards (say the northern suburbs of Dallas) lack the delightful climate and beautiful scenery of this area.
I’d guess that leaving Boston caused my living standards to improve as much as someone moving from middle class to upper middle class, or upper middle class to rich. It’s amazing how much more convenient life has become.
but finds any lessons that might be drawn from his experience elusive. I’d like to suggest a couple. First, it’s good to be rich. The median income in Mission Viejo is around $96,000, comfortably within the top 10% of income earners. The median home price in Mission Viejo is over $700,000. The Teslas he sees tooling around are $70,000 automobiles.
Second, there’s a distinctive sort of hypocrisy in living in Southern California. Present lifestyles there would be impossible based on the water and energy produced there. Now, I don’t think that everybody should be self-sufficient. I buy my groceries at a grocery store and my gas from a filling station.
But I don’t curse grocery stores and filling stations while I’m doing it and I don’t delude myself into thinking that I have some particular virtue because I don’t produce enough food to feed myself or enough oil to power my car. I haven’t saved the earth by my choices. I’m just instantiating Adam Smith’s view of specialization as the key to prosperity. They’re not reducing carbon emissions by not producing energy or by taking water from the Colorado. The emissions and water are just coming from somewhere else.
I would caution Scott that the lifestyle in Southern California is poised on a razor’s edge. It will be increasingly difficult to sustain as California and its surrounding states become more populous.
