Well ‘the privilege of living in California’ is more accurate than it might seem. Everywhere is a tradeoff, and you could figure like 30% is ‘the privilege of living in the US’, and then everywhere else you might live is a tradeoff between taxes, higher/lower pay rate, higher/lower cost of living, more/fewer options for socialization, better/worse infrastructure, etc. Move out of the US and options increase drastically…from far higher taxes and the ‘privilege to live in a European country with lots of socialized services like health care and education’ to far lower taxes in some middle eastern countries but being extremely careful about how much skin you show, and maybe don’t mention your ‘ex’ marriage status, to everything in between.
You could move to a place with lower taxes and maybe be happier…or maybe way worse off depending on a thousand other factors. But the tax rate where you live is certainly one of the legitimate things to take into account.
USA: New hourly job filling out a W-4, single person, no dependents, what's the lowest deduction we can choose?
Goal: the least amount of withholdings possible