America in the Age of Myth

[Geee]

PJMedia:

We live in a mythic age — but mythic in the sense of made-up.

 

The Coastal Aristocrat

In the last thirty years, I have probably spoken 200 times at a coastal university of some sort, most of which were on the Eastern seaboard. I spent eight years at UC Santa Cruz and Stanford. I go to Palo Alto every week to work, and often lecture or teach in southern California.

So I know the Bay Area and Los Angeles almost as well as I know the San Joaquin Valley and the culture of the Eastern seaboard. I talk sometimes with the media, academics, foundation heads, a few in entertainment, and some politicians. All are coastal-based. Here is what I’ve learned over the last three decades about the mythologies of our national oligarchy.

There is a liberal coastal aristocrat, but he is really not very liberal, at least in the sense of his regressive life not matching his progressive rhetoric. His views are mostly conditioned on his education, salary, and material circumstances. Put the coastal aristocrat in charge of a 7-Eleven in Stockton, and his therapeutic view would turn tragic quite quickly. And that fear is why he rarely goes to either a 7-Eleven or Stockton.

Let me give a few examples.

[Valin]

PJMedia:

 

There is a liberal coastal aristocrat, but he is really not very liberal, at least in the sense of his regressive life not matching his progressive rhetoric. His views are mostly conditioned on his education, salary, and material circumstances. Put the coastal aristocrat in charge of a 7-Eleven in Stockton, and his therapeutic view would turn tragic quite quickly. And that fear is why he rarely goes to either a 7-Eleven or Stockton.

Let me give a few examples.

 

 

When Common Ground Politics was up and running the Mod there (Suzan) who lived in one of the nicer parts of L.A. was always saying how fine everything was where she lived. I'm sure this is true (right now), but head out to the inland empire and the situation is just a little different.

[Valin]

California’s dilemma: Remain a ‘basket-case’ state economy or become more like North Dakota?

Mark J. Perry

April 1, 2013

 

California was tied in February with Mississippi and Nevada for the highest state jobless rate in the country at 9.3%. At only 3.3%, North Dakota once again led the nation with the lowest state unemployment rate. Employment in California remains almost 4% below the pre-recession 2007 level, while the Great Recession barely even affected North Dakota’s employment, which is now 22% above the slight dip in 2009.

 

North Dakota’s budget reserves are expected to top $2 billion this year, while California is faced with $34 billion in outstanding debts.

 

Thanks to the fortunes of geology, California is now in a position to become a lot more like North Dakota economically. Shale oil deposits in California’s Monterey region are estimated to be 15 billion barrels, which is four times the amount of oil in North Dakota’s Bakken Shale, the shale play that has been largely responsible for the state’s economic success, budget surplus and America’s lowest jobless rate.

 

(Snip)

 

So here’s the dillema the Golden State faces: Does the state want to tap its bonanza of energy resources in the Monterey shale area (which are owned by California citizens), and in the process create hundreds of thousands of new shovel-ready jobs, generate billions of dollars of much-needed state tax revenues, and bring the state’s jobless rate down from the highest in the country?....(Snip)