Californians Voting with Their Feet by Lawrence J. McQuillan, City Journal 23 October 2008
Several key economic indicators point to grim news for the Golden State in the aftermath of the Wall Street meltdown. The state’s unemployment rate has jumped to 7.7 percent, its highest rate in 12 years and the third-worst in the United States. In Riverside County, 40 percent of homes sold in the past year are in foreclosure. Unfortunately, California’s government doesn’t seem interested in solving the state’s economic problems.
California continues to be burdened with high taxes, punitive regulations, huge wealth-transfer programs, out-of-control spending, and lawsuit abuse. And there’s no end in sight to the state’s fiscal madness. The “balanced budget” signed only a few weeks ago by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger already runs a deficit of as much as $5.5 billion. Last week, to cover state expenditures for the rest of the fiscal year, the state sold $5 billion in short-term notes. Schwarzenegger bought $100,000 worth himself.
That’s a laugh. Schwarzenegger’s personal fortune has been estimated as high as a third of a billion dollars. A hundred grand worth of bonds is, for him, the equivalent of a con artist spending a nickel in order to convince the suckers to buy a hundred bucks worth.
California is the most socialist state in the nation, when viewed as a whole. It is the most badly governed. It has essentially been bankrupt for more than a decade, and the fools who live here keep right on sending back the same socialist lawmakers who bend them over and give it to them again and again, good and hard.
I’ve lived here for nearly a quarter of a century, and I am becoming more and more convinced that my personal experiment in picking a place to live is not going to end well.
Pity. I love San Francisco the city, even if I can’t stand her government or many of her citizens. But I think that much that is good is going to come to an end, and not just here. Somewhere down the road beams the bright and shining light of the Singularity. I just hope I manage to stay around to see it.
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As a New Yorker, I take issue with that. We’ve been corrupt longer than you’ve been a state, and don’t you forget it.
SteveF, I’ll put the age and quality of Savannah, GA’s city and county(Chatham) gov up against NYC’s anytime.
Get out while you can. Go back after it gets fixed(lots of optimism there).
Having grown up in NY, I will back NYC against anyone in the country for corruption. Even Rochester is more corrupt. Not to mention the state government.
Then there is Ohio.
Of course, my current state, MD, is just as bad.
My wife and I considered selling our little suburban home, moving to the wilds (and I do mean wilds - only the Rockies are more wild) of rural PA or WV. After discussion, we realized that we like the convenience of civilization.
So, as there is no where to run (if you go to Costa Rica, it only appears good as you have the money and clout to buy protection), and there is no space program so we can all pioneer on Mars or Alpha C 2.
I would say we have to stay here and fix the problems, not run from them.
As an engineer, I can say that gets very messy, and is a pain in the ass under the best circumstances.
These are not the best circumstances.
Since not many of us here are joiners or leaders, any idea how to use the Army of Davids to start effecting real change and hope, to increased individual freedom and responsibility?
**sigh** even proof reading does not work.
That should read “…there is no space program so we can’t all pioneer on Mars or Alpha C 2″
A few.
Folks, you’re confusing what I posted with your own hobby horses.
I didn’t say a thing about corruption. I talked about socialist policies and bad government. Nobody leads California overall for that sort of cancer.
Corruption isn’t necessarily destructive, or at least not greatly so. Mayor Richard Daley the First’s Chicago was one of the most corrupt city administrations in US history, but his town wasn’t a bad place to live for most people - nor did it ever flirt with bankruptcy or hard socialism.
Probably because Richard the First and the people he sold out to were capitalists capable of taking the long view. These days the crooks are simply greedy and hide behind socialism and don’t care if the system ruins the city or state as long as they get theirs.
Having lived in both CA (1979-1980 then 1989-1998 then 2000-2002) and NY (1981-1988 then 2002-present) I will have to give it to Bill that CA has a slight edge on socialist retards in control of the state. The shame is, that it is much more recent than NY. In my lifetime CA has had more conservative Governors than not, but after prop 188 things went downhill FAST. Bill, SF was always filled with crazies, but So Cal was more sane.
Prop 188? That cigarette sales thing back in 1994?
Is it 187 then? It was the immigration bill that Wilson got vilified for. Remember that?
Sounds like 187.
It was 187. What’s interesting is that Prop’s current status. Although much of it was overturned by a lower court, it was on appeal to the 9th Circuit when Grayout Davis was elected, and dropped the appeal.
I don’t know why the appeal process couldn’t be resumed. The current SCOTUS might even uphold it.