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| Economy |
| Still heading for exits from California |
| 2012-05-30 |
Doh! Of course, people who leave no longer use state services. But those who left arguably were more productive Californians. If they had wanted to subsist on welfare, they never would have departed a state with some of the most generous benefits in the nation. |
| Posted by:GolfBravoUSMC |
| #2 As a former CA (born and raised) resident myself, I'd suggest that traffic was very low on my list of reasons to leave. Traffic is bad in almost all states, and the problem is not enough roads. Mass transit only works once you pass the population density threshold, and Americans generally don't want to live that way. High taxes, poor services, rising crime, decaying infrastructure, declining schools--just everything you would expect from a Blue State. That's the problem. Soon the only people left in CA will be the fabulously wealthy, government employees and illegals. Anyone else there is getting ridden hard and put away wet. |
| Posted by: Iblis 2012-05-30 16:10 |
| #1 Traffic on I-405 cited as one of the reasons people leave. Yeah, it can be a real hassle trying to get to work in the morning. This is a result of bad planning and, yes, we can throw Fannie and Freddie into the stew as well. The building boom we experienced throughout the 90s and 2000s was artificially stimulated by the federal government. Well, we had to provide affordable housing, they said. And yet, even after the mortgage meltdown, you cannot afford it. We let the growth overwhelm our infrastructure and now we are choking on it. And God forbid that we should have any mass transportation in Los Angeles. But traffic in LA was a nightmare long before Fannie and Freddie. Way back in the 1950s (or was it the 40s?) they staked their future on freeways. Legend has it that GM, Standard Oil and Firestone "convinced" the LA politicians that cars, freeways and suburbs were the way to go. I'll say one thing about it though, driving southbound on the 405 between the 101 and LAX at night in the carpool lane is an adventure you'll never forget. Beats the hell out of anything at Disneyland or Magic Mountain. Another story I heard is that when they recently had to close the 405 for a whole day up there so they could retrofit a bridge, the skateboarders took to it. There was a long, empty, fairly steep stretch of concrete that was crying out for skateboarders to ride it. The cops busted some of them. Even so, I wish I'd been there for that! As for all that immigration from other countries, you might want to believe the federal government has a policy that controls who comes here and from which countries. But, alas, people walk across the border with Mexico and we have no idea how many or where they come from. Then they tell use we are bad people because the housing is not affordable and the schools suck. Well, the schools suck because there are so many immigrants that don't speak English and don't value education the way we do. As far as I'm concerned, they can all get the hell outta here. |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2012-05-30 13:02 |