I'm glad Mad Jock mentioned Alaska. Now a while back on this entertaining thread (Goodbody has probably gone off by now) I promised to tell you exactly what is wrong with California. As compared with say New York, Florida, or even the UK.
Enterprising people, or those who couldn't fit in at home, or those whose agriculture was below subsistence for the population sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to populate the thirteen original colonies of the United States, bringing plenty of black African slaves to do the heavy work in the South.
Those people who were not successful or didn't fit in on the Eastern Seaboard packed up the wagon and moved West. Across the Missisippi. Those who couldn't get on in the Midwest eventually moved to California. Which until the late twentieth century was full of wierdos.
The Frontier still calls to those who are maladjusted in various ways; now they move on to Alaska.....