Well, we're not talking about them as individuals. A lot of California's systemic problems are due to voters perpetually voting themselves less taxes and higher services, as well as voting in obstacles, like a ridiculous 2/3rds majority required for a budget, which necessarily results in nutterbutter compromises that sacrifice the long-term.
Yes, I am familiar with California's structural problems. I was questioning the fairness of apportioning blame to any particular group of people. The process is broken, and the way out requires a superhuman effort to reform the entire process. A process that has people vote on contradictory and powerful initiatives like that is broken and it demands tactical voting by large numbers of people who disagree with each other to overcome these results. And certainly, many voters have just given up and don't even think about how to change the system.
This is not a personality fault of Californians. This could have happened in any state whose constitution allowed it to happen. Californians are unfortunate enough to have an initiative-friendly constitution and such a large population that retail politics is impossible. So while bailing out Californians isn't the answer, "you did it to yourself" is useless until the voters en masse reject a constitutional convention.
