That’s the question I’ve been asking myself recently as a California resident. Living in this state, especially in the L.A. or Bay Area locales, comes at a steep premium by almost every measure. We pay a 7.25% state sales tax, up to a 10.5% income tax, a 35 cent per gallon gas tax, and a host of other miscellaneous fees and withholding taxes. On top of facing the highest aggregate tax burden in the country, we Golden State dwellers have substantially higher housing costs. Has California officially jumped the shark?

Down here in L.A., it’s common to hear people refer to our high cost of living as the “sunshine” tax. In other words, all that money vanishing from your wallet is just the price you pay to enjoy the nice weather here, since we certainly don’t have the best-maintained roads or public schools. It’s meant to be a joke, but I’ve actually started considering this to be close to the truth.

So I have to ask myself, am I willing to pay a 10% tax on everything simply for more sunshine? Some argue that it’s money well-spent to be in a place like the Bay Area, where you get this magical blend of startuppy goodness that can’t be found anywhere else. Okay. But what about places like Austin? Or Portland? Or Boulder? They all have strong or growing startup communities without the sunshine tax. Hell, the Denver area has 300 days of sunshine (I actually lived there for two years). It’s just not the warm, Mediterranean sunshine we have here. But since I’m indoors 90% of the time, does the temperature really matter? I just want to see a pretty picture when I look out the window.

Maybe if you’ve bought a ticket in the Google lotto as a VC-funded startup chasing $10 Million financing rounds, it makes a lot of sense to be here. But for bootstrappers trying to maximize every dollar and minimize every expense? The bottom line is that California is coasting on past performance, not present reality.