Is California Cracking Up?

Corporate profits at California-based transnational corporations such as Apple, Facebook and Google are hitting record highs.

California housing prices from La Jolla to Berkeley along the Pacific Coast can top $1,000 a square foot.


It seems as if all of China is willing to pay premium prices to get their children degreed at Caltech, Berkeley, Stanford, UCLA or USC.

Yet California -- after raising its top income tax rate to 13.3 percent and receiving record revenues -- is still facing a budget deficit of more than $1 billion. There is a much more foreboding state crisis of unfunded liabilities and pension obligations of nearly $1 trillion.

CNN Reporters: The Democrats Are A Disaster, Leaderless, And In Complete Disarray
Soon, new gas tax hikes, on top of green mandates, might make California gas the most expensive in the nation, despite the state's huge reserves of untapped oil.

Where does the money go, given that the state's schools and infrastructure rank among America's worst in national surveys?

Illegal immigration over the last 30 years, the exodus of millions of middle-class Californians, and huge wealth concentrated in the L.A. basin and Silicon Valley have turned the state into a medieval manor of knights and peasants, with ever fewer in between.

The strapped middle class continues to flee bad schools, high taxes, rampant crime and poor state services. About one-third of the nation's welfare recipients reside in California. Approximately one-fifth of the state lives below the poverty line. More than a quarter of Californians were not born in the United States.

Many of the state's wealthiest residents support high taxes, no-growth green policies and subsidies for the poor. They do so because they reside in apartheid neighborhoods and have the material and political wherewithal to become exempt from the consequences of their own utopian bromides.


Blue California has no two-party politics anymore. Its campuses, from Berkeley to Claremont, have proven among the most hostile to free speech in the nation.

A few things keep California going. Its natural bounty, beauty and weather draw in people eager to play California roulette. The state is naturally rich in minerals, oil and natural gas, timber and farmland. The world pays dearly for whatever techies based in California's universities can dream up.

That said, the status quo is failing.

The skeletons of half-built bridges and overpasses for a $100 billion high-speed-rail dinosaur remind residents of the ongoing boondoggle. Meantime, outdated roads and highways -- mostly unchanged from the 1960s -- make driving for 40 million both slow and dangerous. Each mile of track for high-speed rail represents millions of dollars that were not spent on repairing and expanding stretches of the state's decrepit freeways -- and hundreds of lives needlessly lost each year.

The future of state transportation is not updated versions of 19th-century ideas of railways and locomotives, but instead will include electric-powered and automatically piloted cars -- all impossible without good roads.

Less than 40 percent of California residents identify themselves as conservative. But red-county California represents some 75 percent of California's geographical area. It's as if large, rural Mississippi and tiny urban Massachusetts were one combined state -- all ruled by liberal Boston.


Now, a third of the state thinks it can pull off a "Calexit" and leave the United States. Calexit's unhinged proponents have no idea that they are mimicking the right-wing arguments of the Confederate states that prompted the Civil War. Like South Carolina residents in 1861, Calexit advocates seem to assume that federal law should apply everywhere else except in California. Many of these California residents also believe that the federal Environmental Protection Agency should always override local ordinances, but not so with another federal bureau, Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

South Carolina started the Civil War by shelling and capturing federal property at Fort Sumter in Charleston Bay. Calexit wannabe secessionists similarly assume that thousands of square miles of federal property -- from California federal courtrooms and post offices to national parks such as Yosemite to huge military bases such as Camp Pendleton -- belong to the state and could simply be confiscated from the federal government.

Calexit proponents assume California can leave the union without an authorizing amendment to the Constitution, ratified by three-fourths of all the states. And they fail to see that should California ever secede, it would immediately split in two. The coastal strip would go the way of secessionist Virginia. The other three-quarters of the state's geography would remain loyal to the union and become a new version of loyalist West Virginia. https://m.townhall.com/columnists/victordavishanson/2017/08/10/is-california-cracking-up-n2366505 Calexit is a progressive temper tantrum by its progressives over the election of Trump. They have ruined the state and now they want to take it out of the union. Inland California would secede from Calexit California and stay in the USA.

 

California should secede. They want it, the rest of the country wants it let them go.

 

California runs the projections on its state budget every January, and while the projections representing the years 2017-2018 ran a deficit, it is worth noting that the years 2013 through 2016 had just run a surplus




None the less, the state running back into a deficit is problematic, however the new budget that was signed this past June is expected to run the state back into a surplus, but we won't know the 2018-2019 projections until next January.

the money is literally going to road infrastructure

http://fortune.com/2017/04/07/california-gas-tax-road-repairs/



edit:

I should also note that while California's poverty rate is troubling, it is the 17th highest among the US states, lower than Texas and Florida
http://www.worldatlas.com/articles/us-poverty-rate-by-state.html

 

If California does, do you think their official language would be Spanish ?


.

 

The wealthier residents of the state don't realize it yet but they are going to be the ones to get socked when that debt burden starts getting out of control and the government is in dire need of immediate additional revenue.
Not even talking extremely rich people, more like the people earning $90,000 or more, which is more like the middle class in many parts of the state because of the higher cost of living and very high cost of housing.
Won't they be in for a surprise.

If all the outrage they will feel then was present now, all the politicians would be immediately kicked out. But it takes a crisis to rouse people from their apathy.
It will be too little too late though, and they will be left to pick up the pieces. Assuming the blame is not successfully pinned on something else (which is not unlikely) I predict there will be a radical change in the political landscape, in 20 to 30 years time. (Of course, demographically, by that time, the middle class will not comprise a majority of that state's population, so that's another factor)

 

California has already cracked. The only question is how long will it take for democrat voters to understand?

The answer is they never will.

 

Probably Ebonics lol

 

I agree. Let em go. Those of us in the red inland counties will stay in the union.

 

God, another right-wing circle jerk?
Don't you people ever get tired of your asinine chicken little hysterics?
California has the world's 6th largest economy and houses more brain power than all of the red swamps between the coasts combined.

 

Democrats are turning Calif into another Detroit.

 

Excellent OP "XX". It seems to me over the years that many Californians tried to vote conservatives or even moderates into state and local public office without success. Those that did manage to win were met with harsh obstructionism from the majority power holders (ie. establishment). Trump has the same problem. As far as I'm concerned, let the State die by their own hands. That's usually what it takes to "drain the swamp." I'm hoping Trump has more success in draining the swamp at the federal level though.

Steve

 

Local autonomy is the most underrated feature in government, by a significant margin.

California can make it illegal to midgender your dog with incorrect pronouns, Oklahoma can make abortion equivalent to murder 1 under the law.

What's not to like? Everyone can get what they want.

 

The rest of the story;

"State politicians have touted California’s economy as being so big it would be the sixth largest in the world, but what they don’t tell you is the high cost of living knocks it down a few notches. .

GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT



In trillions of U.S. dollars for 2015.

NO. 1 IN THE U.S.

California’s economy produces over $1 trillion more than the next most productive state, New York.

Real gross domestic product by state from the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis for fourth quarter 2015 – does not include cost of living.

California’s production is greater than these 15 states combined.

THE DOWNSIDE

CNBC grades the states using 60 metrics for business in 10 categories. California ranked second to last (49th) in 2016 for “cost of doing business.” Hawaii is the only state ranked lower than California.

HIGH COST OF LIVING

According to CNBC’s rankings, California has the fourth highest cost of living in the nation behind Hawaii, New York and Delaware.
Other categories 2016 rank
Workforce 21
Infrastructure 33
Economy 8
Quality of life 23
Technology and Innovation 2

Education 38
Business friendliness 50
Access to capital 2
Overall 32

http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/02/10/heres-how-big-californias-economy-really-is/

 

Interesting, thanks. I wonder how much of California's GDP revenue comes from the U.S. tax payers, or Federal dollars for the vast number of programs. An example would be the federal money eliminated by the sanctuary cities debacle. If that makes them angry, how angry would they be with billions less?

It's just another example of how the media has led voters toward self-destruction.

Steve

 

Oh now the propaganda starts. So much fear.

Where is 90% of the population? Hmmmmm?

 

Away from 90% of agricultural production. Glad I could help.

 

The question is, can they all swim?

 

Ever noticed that Jerry Brown and the liberals and progressives never mention California's public service employees pensions ?

Stanford Study Reveals California Pensions Underfunded By $1 Trillion Or $93k Per Household
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-...sions-underfunded-1-trillion-or-93k-household



Update:

Jerry Brown: California Pension Liability Skyrockets by 22%

Governor Brown’s May Revised Budget reveals that the State of California’s and the University of California’s unfunded pension liabilities have skyrocketed by 22 percent in the last year...-> http://www.breitbart.com/california...alifornia-pension-liability-skyrockets-by-22/

Just another lie.

1/3 of the money will be going too building soccer fields for anchor babies, new welcome mats at the California / Mexican border , pension funds for state employees and other social programs and Jerry Brown considers taking away car lanes and covering them into bike lanes, more choo choo trains to transport illegal alien nannies and gardeners from the barrios to the white liberal elitist neighborhoods as being part of the road infrastructure.

 

Excellent summary of the state (small s ) of California.

 

Are you suggesting that liberals aren't the ones calling for more funds for pensions for state employees? Normally liberals are the ones who complain when said pensions are cut or underfunded to balance the state budget, which is exactly what happened in 2012. In any case, if a state is going to have a difficult time paying retirees, the solution isn't fewer young workers who aren't entitled to state pensions.

As for 1/3rd of the infrastructure money going to soccer fields, I am going to have to ask for a source on that. When you call one source a lie, you should normally provide a fact check or a counter source to back that claim.

 

I don't know how APACHERAT is going to respond, but the problem across the country is unfunded and under funded pensions plans. They are obsolete in this day and age when things change at the "speed of light."

Fully funded plans such as 401k's or the non-profit version of it are what the vast majority are using for retirement plans today.

Originally, those plans were to attract people to low paying government jobs. But now the pay is higher and the plans are still unfunded.

Steve

 

Jerry Brown was the source. Until Jerry Brown just recently revised how the increase in the gas tax was going to be spent it was 40% that wouldn't be used for repairing our roads, highways and bridges.

We here in this totalitarian state of California already pay way to much taxes on gasoline. Where has the gas tax revenues been going ??? Defiantly not into maintaining our roads, highways and bridges.

Gasoline taxes and fees in California
Before the Democrats new gas tax. -> http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com...n/sd-fi-california-gastax-20170413-story.html

76.7 cents per gallon !!!

 

California has the 7th highest gas prices in the country, I wouldn't doubt that for second.. but once again, I am going to have to ask for a source on your claims on how the infrastructure money is being spent. You say your source is Jerry Brown.. do you have a link of any kind to show that this is true?

 

Will you except a liberal bias source ?

Is Jerry Brown 'diverting' 30 percent of California's new gas tax money?
http://www.politifact.com/californi...brown-proposing-divert-30-percent-new-gas-ta/

Back to reality:

 

Appeal to ridicule fallacy. Can you refute anything that was said in the article?

That it is the 6th largest economy is about the only thing of actual substance that you pointed out, but that doesn't prove much when the original article pointed out why--California is rich in resources. It's not California's policies that have kept the state afloat. It's stayed afloat despite its policies and thanks to vast resources, and simply the fact that businesses can't leave overnight. It's not like businesses can just go nomadic, get up and leave and pitch their tent in whatever state suits them at a given time.

Chicken Little you say? People in the 5th century Roman Empire were saying the same thing--the Empire has been around for centuries, it still has the best army, nothing to worry about here! When it was sacked by the Goths, however, all those little Romans were running around in shock! How did this happen? Over-confidence and hubris. The Greeks wrote most of their tragic plays about it.