Only in California

MattF · Jul 23, 2010

Well, when the state goes broke officially and freezes its pension plans...

DrPepper · Jul 23, 2010

Quote from tomdavis:

The only real solution will occur when nobody else is willing to lend money to the state and the coffers completely run dry.
More...

Bingo. What is true for California is also true for the US. Anyone who believes that this is just another recession and that California and the US will pull out of it over time is insane. In the future, people will look back and wonder how we ever thought that California or even the US could recover from such an unpayable debt burden.

Get out of debt and become more self-sufficient. Those with some liquid assets will be able to profit handsomely as the economy deteriorates and the firesale begins.

moneymonger · Jul 23, 2010

Quote from tomdavis:

I've lived in California for the last 30+ years and I've watched these problems develop over time:

1. The state of California has 12% of the nation's population and 32% of all the country's welfare cases because of the constantly increasing benefits offered over the years.

2. Illegal aliens cost the state somewhere between $3-7 billion a year, depending whose numbers you look at.

3. The alliance between politicians and the public employee unions has resulted in a fiscal disaster. The unions deliver votes and money at election time, and the politicians give public employee unions massive raises and benefits. California's public employees are now the highest paid in the country, and the retirement health/pension program has an unfunded liability of a half trillion dollars.

4. Over the past 10 years, the legislature has increased government spending at twice the rate of the growth in the California economy. It doesn't take a math genius to figure out that eventually the train is going to run off the tracks. Even huge tax increases and massive borrowing haven't been enough to keep pace.

5. The California legislature has done everything in its power to destroy private enterprise with high taxes (now 5th highest per capita in the country, up from 17th just a few years ago) and a maze of regulations that nobody understands. Regulatory costs in California are now the highest in the nation. Companies like Telmar Networks, Terumo Medical, Creel Printing and Stasis Engineering have left the state for good. Hewlett Packard, eBay, JC Penny, the Automobile Club of Southern California and other large corporations are moving thousands of jobs to Nevada, Utah, Texas and Tennessee. Even the entertainment business is moving operations (production/filming) out of the state. In total, over 140 companies have left the state. California now has 12.6% unemployment, third highest in the country.

6. More people are leaving California than are coming in. And the people coming in have 20% less income than those leaving resulting in an ever shrinking tax base.

California's problems are clearly definable and are self-inflicted. There are now so many special interest groups feeding at the trough, the politicians will not do what they have to do for fear of losing votes. The only real solution will occur when nobody else is willing to lend money to the state and the coffers completely run dry.
More...

All of this largely due to voter apathy. Politics is dull-boring. To many other distractions to occupy our minds. I do wonder how far
over the edge the state will plummit before the voters wake up.

Log in or Sign up

Only in California

MattF

DrPepper

moneymonger