California, Here We Stay

[Valin]

City Journal:

Reasons not to flee an imploding state

Victor Davis Hanson

Autumn 2012

 

California’s multidimensional decline—fiscal, commercial, social, and political—sometimes seems endless. The state’s fiscal problems were especially evident this past May, when Governor Jerry Brown announced an “unexpected” $16 billion annual budget shortfall. Two months later, he signed a $92 billion budget that appears balanced only if voters approve an $8.5 billion tax increase in November. According to a study published by a public policy group at Stanford University, California’s various retirement systems have amassed $500 billion in unfunded liabilities. To honor the pension and benefit contracts of current and retired public employees, state and local governments have already started to lay off workers and slash services.

 

Not just in its finances but almost wherever you look, the state’s vital signs are dipping. The average unemployment rate hovers above 10 percent. In the reading and math tests administered by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, California students rank near the bottom of the country, though their teachers earn far more than the average American teacher does. California’s penal system is the largest in the United States, with more than 165,000 inmates. Some studies estimate that the state prisons and county jails house more than 30,000 illegal aliens at a cost of $1 billion or more each year. Speaking of which: California has the nation’s largest population of illegal aliens, on whom it spends an estimated $10 billion annually in entitlements. The illegals also deprive the Golden State’s economy of billions of dollars every year by sending remittances to Latin America.

 

(Snip)

 

So why, you might ask, would anyone stay here?

 

(Snip)

[Draggingtree]

City Journal:

Reasons not to flee an imploding state

Victor Davis Hanson

Autumn 2012

 

California's multidimensional declinefiscal, commercial, social, and politicalsometimes seems endless. The state's fiscal problems were especially evident this past May, when Governor Jerry Brown announced an "unexpected" $16 billion annual budget shortfall. Two months later, he signed a $92 billion budget that appears balanced only if voters approve an $8.5 billion tax increase in November. According to a study published by a public policy group at Stanford University, California's various retirement systems have amassed $500 billion in unfunded liabilities. To honor the pension and benefit contracts of current and retired public employees, state and local governments have already started to lay off workers and slash services.

 

Not just in its finances but almost wherever you look, the state's vital signs are dipping. The average unemployment rate hovers above 10 percent. In the reading and math tests administered by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, California students rank near the bottom of the country, though their teachers earn far more than the average American teacher does. California's penal system is the largest in the United States, with more than 165,000 inmates. Some studies estimate that the state prisons and county jails house more than 30,000 illegal aliens at a cost of $1 billion or more each year. Speaking of which: California has the nation's largest population of illegal aliens, on whom it spends an estimated $10 billion annually in entitlements. The illegals also deprive the Golden State's economy of billions of dollars every year by sending remittances to Latin America.

 

(Snip)

 

So why, you might ask, would anyone stay here?

 

(Snip)

Dying California Cannibalizes Itself

 

 

Posted by John Hitchcock on 2012/11/07

 

I have written multiple articles chronicling California’s Leftism-caused death throes. Yesterday, Californians, in their great wisdom, have decided to cannibalize themselves, (HT Patterico) devouring whatever healthy parts they had left. As businesses and working families have been fleeing the state for healthier locales, Californians have just finished voting to raise income taxes on the most productive of what’s left, raise corporate tax rates for the businesses which haven’t yet fled, raise sales taxes. Californians have also voted not to curtail Public Employee Union power, that power that has already caused multiple California cities to declare bankruptcy. What does this mean for the once-great state of California? It means more business closures. It means

 

Welcome to the Socialist caused Sheol, folks. http://truthbeforedishonor.wordpress.com/2012/11/07/dying-california-cannibalizes-itself/

[Valin]

City Journal:

Reasons not to flee an imploding state

Victor Davis Hanson

Autumn 2012

 

California's multidimensional declinefiscal, commercial, social, and politicalsometimes seems endless. The state's fiscal problems were especially evident this past May, when Governor Jerry Brown announced an "unexpected" $16 billion annual budget shortfall. Two months later, he signed a $92 billion budget that appears balanced only if voters approve an $8.5 billion tax increase in November. According to a study published by a public policy group at Stanford University, California's various retirement systems have amassed $500 billion in unfunded liabilities. To honor the pension and benefit contracts of current and retired public employees, state and local governments have already started to lay off workers and slash services.

 

Not just in its finances but almost wherever you look, the state's vital signs are dipping. The average unemployment rate hovers above 10 percent. In the reading and math tests administered by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, California students rank near the bottom of the country, though their teachers earn far more than the average American teacher does. California's penal system is the largest in the United States, with more than 165,000 inmates. Some studies estimate that the state prisons and county jails house more than 30,000 illegal aliens at a cost of $1 billion or more each year. Speaking of which: California has the nation's largest population of illegal aliens, on whom it spends an estimated $10 billion annually in entitlements. The illegals also deprive the Golden State's economy of billions of dollars every year by sending remittances to Latin America.

 

(Snip)

 

So why, you might ask, would anyone stay here?

 

(Snip)

Dying California Cannibalizes Itself

 

 

All I can do is repeat the same quote...."Trends that cannot continue...won't."