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I have been saying for a couple of years that California is in a Great Depression. Here are some numbers, “Since the financial crisis began in 2008, the state has fared even worse. Last year, California personal income fell 2.5 percent, the first such fall since the Great Depression and well below the 1.7 percent drop for the rest of the country. Unemployment may be starting to ebb nationwide, but not in California, where it approaches 13 percent, among the highest rates in the nation. Between 2008 and 2009, not one of Californias biggest cities outperformed such traditional laggards as New York, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia in employment growth, and four cities Los Angeles, Oakland, Santa Ana, and San Bernardino Riverside sit very close to the bottom among the nations largest metro areas, just slightly ahead of basket cases like Detroit. Long a global exemplar, California is in danger of becoming, as historian Kevin Starr has warned, a failed state.
At the same time the Guv has raised taxes, created AB 32 and SB 375 to kill jobs and revenues. Today is day 41 without a budget and even Arnold admits we may not have one till after a new Governor is sworn in to office in January.
This, by the way can be faulted on the Progressives. "What went so wrong? The answer lies in a change in the nature of progressive politics in California. During the second half of the twentieth century, the state shifted from an older progressivism, which emphasized infrastructure investment and business growth, to a newer version, which views the private sector much the way the Huns viewed a city as something to be sacked and plundered. The result is two separate California realities: a lucrative one for the wealthy and for government workers, who are largely insulated from economic decline; and a grim one for the private-sector middle and working classes, who are fleeing the state."
Protecting illegal aliens, entitlement programs making it a cost benefit for many to stay on welfare--some for 3-5 generations, is the cause of the problem. Our polices make this a State for the very rich, the very poor and the illegal aliens--all others need to work harder to provide for the rich, the poor and the illegal. This is why productive people are leaving the State and our jobs creation is down.
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At the same time the Guv has raised taxes, created AB 32 and SB 375 to kill jobs and revenues. Today is day 41 without a budget and even Arnold admits we may not have one till after a new Governor is sworn in to office in January.
This, by the way can be faulted on the Progressives. "What went so wrong? The answer lies in a change in the nature of progressive politics in California. During the second half of the twentieth century, the state shifted from an older progressivism, which emphasized infrastructure investment and business growth, to a newer version, which views the private sector much the way the Huns viewed a city as something to be sacked and plundered. The result is two separate California realities: a lucrative one for the wealthy and for government workers, who are largely insulated from economic decline; and a grim one for the private-sector middle and working classes, who are fleeing the state."
Protecting illegal aliens, entitlement programs making it a cost benefit for many to stay on welfare--some for 3-5 generations, is the cause of the problem. Our polices make this a State for the very rich, the very poor and the illegal aliens--all others need to work harder to provide for the rich, the poor and the illegal. This is why productive people are leaving the State and our jobs creation is down.
More...