Damn, you just ragged on my home state and I agreed with most of it. The weather. It's sunny, yet cool, year 'round. Winters require a sweatshirt and jeans. No iced roads, no snow boot. And make no mistake, there are plenty of people that fill up the camping sites all over the state when the holidays come. The fact that you can make enough to live there, and if you choose to, spend that money on materialistic items or otherwise interesting hobbies. Careers can be rat races at times, but if you make it into your mid 30s without being spat out by the managers you gave the best years of your life to, you're almost guaranteed to be making a solid six-figure salary. Hell, I know people making six-figures straight out of college. The culture. I think the excessive liberalism can be exhausting at times, and there are some dumb / corrupt politicians that have come out of the state, but (the bay area) it's also the birthplace of the free speech movement, the LGBT rights movement. SF and Oakland are cities for the young, and a bit more affordable than NYC, yet still the center of technology. You can't go a mile in the urban areas without encountering some sort of counter-culture headquarters. And hey, some people dig that. The young people there are funny of energy and /want/ to do good, be it via urban farms, green energy, or activism. They just tend to be misguided...So what makes this the place people want to be?