The Collapse of California

One of the best articles I’ve read about the State of California.

California- The Coming Collapse. Part 1:

in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s California was by any measure a paradise. Sure housing was expensive, but the weather was great, the scenery beautiful. Silicon Valley was the vibrant world center of technology churning our new technological miracles, creating new companies and new jobs. California Universities were the envy of the planet. If you wanted to learn cutting edge science and engineering, they were the place to be. California set the cultural standards for the nation. In 1965 the Beach Boys “wished they all could be California girls”. Twenty years later, David Lee Roth had the same wish.

The governor at the time was Jerry Brown. Brown was a fairly typical liberal California governor. He served two terms as governor and earned the nickname “Moonbeam”. To gain union support he allowed the public sector employees to unionize. This would prove expensive over time, as the public employee unions gained unprecedented political power which they used to gain ever increasing benefits from Democrat politicians.

Fast forward thirty years, and California is a different place. Unemployment is at 12.2% across the state with some areas considerably higher. Across Silicon Valley stands large empty office buildings. At least the commuting time is improving. The state university system is in decline (see what currently passes for scholarship here). And the state government stands on the brink of bankruptcy. Several times over the past year the state issued IOU’s for state payments. Read the rest here

And that spells out how we got here, the second part of this article discusses where we really are and actually does some comparisons with Texas:

California- The Coming Collapse. Part 2:

Californians didn’t just wake up one morning and find themselves in the current mess. It took many years of greedy unions, corrupt politicians, activist judges, and progressive advocacy groups to move the state to the edge of the precipice. This article will further explore the roots of California’s dilemna and where California is going.

California has had governors of both parties, but the state legislature has long been dominated by Democrats. Currently in the Assembly (the lower house) the Democrats control with a 64.1% share of the membership. In the Senate the Democrats currently have a 63.2% controlling majority. Similarly, the coastal cities have had many years of one party Democrat rule (with the exception of San Diego). Inland, Californians tend to be more conservative, but the inland population (which tends to be centered around agriculture) is dwarfed by the population of the coastal cities. Read the rest here

The part I found extremely interesting is the part about the rental trucks.:

So, what are the tax payers of California doing? They’re voting with their feet. Between 2000 and 2009, 1,509,000 people left California. The Carpe Diem blog has some interesting figures on U-haul rental prices between California and Texas. Typically truck rental firms charge more money for routes in high demand and much less for lower demand routes (often the return trip).

From Dallas to San Francisco: $734
From San Francisco to Dallas: $2,116

From Houston to Los Angeles: $706
From Los Angeles to Houston: $2,051

I don’t really want to live in Dallas, or Houston. But I love the state of Texas for their hospitality and down home attitude. I’d gladly live in Texas (The rural areas) But I’m not real sure the state could handle TexasFred and I in the same general location.

So do you think California can recover from the damage that’s been happening since the 80’s? I think it’s too far gone and it’s going to take a catastrophic event to start the recovery.

The prevailing view among Californians is the state is hosed. However; the failure of the lifelong liberals to see that they caused it and change course is what is keeping this state from being great again. They keep electing the same type idiots to office and expecting them to fix it without pain. There needs to be pain. Cuts need to be made, taxes need to be lowered, businesses need an environment conducive to profits and that increases employment. But that’s okay, I don’t plan on being here too much longer. The entire state can fall off into the pacific for all I care.