You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
Home Front: Culture Wars
California Dreaming Nightmare
2011-04-12
California in the Balance.

We calibrate CaliforniaÂ’s decline by its myriad of paradoxes. The nationÂ’s highest bundle of gas, sales, and income taxes cannot close the nationÂ’s largest annual deficit at $25 billion. Test scores are at the countryÂ’s near bottom; teachersÂ’ salaries at the very top. Scores of the affluent are leaving each week; scores of the indigent are arriving. The nationÂ’s most richly endowed state is also the most regulated; the most liberal of our residents are also the most ready to practice apartheid in their Bel Air or Palo Alto enclaves.

We now see highway patrolmen and city police, in the manner of South American law enforcement, out in force. Everywhere they are monitoring, watching, ticketing — no warnings, no margins of error — desperate to earn traffic fines that might feed the state that feeds them. I could go on. But you get the picture that we are living on the fumes of a rich state that our forefathers brilliantly exploited, and now there is not much energy left in the fading exhaust to keep us going.
Posted by:GolfBravoUSMC

#23  California resident here.

Was in paying my property tax bill yesterday (last chance before it's late) and it was interesting listening to the other tax-livestock (I mean home-owners) paying their huge property tax bills for houses that are worth much less than shown on their property tax bills. Lots of anger in that room waiting to pay bills.

I'm hoping the coming hyper-inflation will bring my inflation-adjusted tax bill down... as long as the tax-eaters leave Proposition 13 alone. Tax increase is limited to about 1.5% per year unless the house is sold or work done on it. The increase isn't inflation adjusted - so that might help.

How sad is it that I'm hoping our Federal government crazy monetary policy will inflate down my property tax? I pray for our kids.
Posted by: Leigh   2011-04-12 18:30  

#22  There are more than one former auto plant in Caliphornia. Most are now shopping centers or industrial parks
Posted by: Nimble Spemble   2011-04-12 18:05  

#21  In California its actually easier to "layoff" rather than "fire" a person. Less paperwork needs to be filed.
Posted by: Valentine   2011-04-12 17:56  

#20  Dangit, meant it the other way around ....

Taxes success and subsidizes failure. That's what I get for trying to talk on the phone and type at the same time.
Posted by: crosspatch   2011-04-12 16:01  

#19  The only car plant I am aware of in California is the Tesla Motors plant in Fremont.

1. You always get more of what you subsidize.
2. You always get less of what you tax.

California subsidizes success and taxes failure.
Posted by: crosspatch   2011-04-12 16:00  

#18  BS, Kommiefornu is exactly what it's residents wanted it to be and no amount of whining can change that. It's residents keep voting for liberal morons and now we see the outcome. When was the last time the state built a power plant, or went after any type of useful industry? Foreign car companies are building new car plants, how many on the left coast?
Posted by: Jefferson   2011-04-12 15:50  

#17  Mr. Lotp was born and raised in CA, and we lived there during most of the period 1978-1989, both in the north and in the south. We still own a home there.

Around 1987 my small firm had to fire a new employee whose resume was badly inflated. The state legal environment was strongly pro-employee / anti-employer, EB6305 - much more so than in other states. That led to a real hassle for us, in which we were essentially required to prove we had a right to fire someone who'd been with us 2 months. That environment drove away a lot of business = tax base.
Posted by: lotp   2011-04-12 15:45  

#16  Beavis, I'm not trying to be personal either. The point I'm trying to make is there are a lot things that have been foisted upon this state by people from outside the state. Also, if some of those people who came to California have now become disillusioned, they are free to leave because IMHO the state really is too crowded. Having grown up here I considered myself fortunate and when I finally scraped up enough money I bought into the state thinking it was different from New Jersey. Now I'm not so sure that I wouldn't be better off in New Jersey. It has changed that much.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305   2011-04-12 14:54  

#15  Liberals are not facing a revolt in Caliphornia. They are Caliphornia. They elected Brown, Harris and Lockyer, not to mention Boxer Feinstein and the rest of the Bay Area Babes in Congress and defeated every rational measure Ahnold proposed and turned him into a girly man. Liberals have taken over the state and it is now living with the consequences.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble   2011-04-12 14:10  

#14  Kilo Bravo used to lecture California Bay area High School seniors regarding career opportunities.

In heavily Asian areas like Mission San Jose Fremont she was well received and treated politely.

In White-bread enclaves like Danville and Pleasanton she also was treated with respect and attention to the lecture.

In heavy Hispanic areas like San Jose the kids seemed clueless or not interested.

Going to schools in Oakland, Richmond and Pittsburg in her opinion was a waste of time and her sponsor discontinued lectures in those venues.
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC   2011-04-12 14:09  

#13  When half or even more of your elementary school students don't speak English it's pretty hard to teach them.

Nearly every wave of immigration till the 80s, English was not just the key to integration and success, but literally pushed by the parents on their children. While they'd speak it at home and in ghetto'd neighborhoods, they all saw it as opportunity for the next generation and promoted it. Then the 'diversity' and 'multicultural' thinkers got hold not just of the education institutions, they also sold a bill of goods to the new immigrants that they don't have to melt into the pot and could cling to the old ways and be entitled to it all. The families now see no need to become part of that which generations of immigrants before them had done. That is now coming home to roost to a state that promoted the attitude so much. It's costly and a dead end for future prosperity.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2011-04-12 14:00  

#12  "Liberals are facing a revolt in Kalifornia."

Geez - aren't they revolting enough already, Sarge?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2011-04-12 13:45  

#11  Mark this down: Liberals are facing a revolt in Kalifornia.

Call me when they start tarring and feathering them, I will come and help.
Posted by: Secret Asian Man (at large)   2011-04-12 13:44  

#10  "We now see highway patrolmen and city police, in the manner of South American law enforcement, out in force. Everywhere they are monitoring, watching, ticketing — no warnings, no margins of error — desperate to earn traffic fines that might feed the state that feeds them" What a Jacka## - LAPD just lost a 2 million dollar lawsuit filed by the officers for attempting to force a ticket quota on them. Quotas are illegal. The CHP and most other Agencies have gone to 12 hours shifts - thus you see more cops on the beat.
Posted by: retired LEO   2011-04-12 13:42  

#9  EU 6305. I think I am the only native Atlantan there is. Yeah, I know all about the wild growth of the 70-00's from the northeast and midwest.

It wasn't personal.
Posted by: Beavis   2011-04-12 13:42  

#8  We Kalifornians are having an epiphany on taxes. It seems there is little or no support for the tax “extensions” that Jerry Brown proposed. The people are beginning to question why do the cuts only target education, safety, and health services. Also the state has businesses fleeing the state in record numbers. Mark this down: Liberals are facing a revolt in Kalifornia.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge    2011-04-12 13:19  

#7  I don't have a whole hell of a lot of sympathy.

I know all about the CTA. I think they're fairly typical of unions all across this country. You didn't say what state you live in but you might want to check out the teachers' union there.

As for the teachers' pay in this state, you probably don't want to get me started on the cost of housing here. But, too late, you already did. California experienced a building boom that has gone on for the past few decades. It was artificially stimulated by Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac, another FEDERAL problem. But the boom went completely out of control here. It seemed that, despite your scorn and derision, everybody in the whole country wanted to move here. And why not? We have the palm trees, the beaches, the mountains and the weather that can't be beat. And for a time before the loonies took over we had an extremely competitive business environment and LOTS of jobs.

I could have sworn there were days back in the 70's when I saw more out of state license plates than California plates on the cars. New York, New Jersey, Texas and Michigan were by far the most numerous. That's right, Texas was right up there. There were times when I thought I might start throwing punches the next time I heard a New York accent. They just grate on the ears. I've said this before too, scratch a Californian and you're likely to find a New Yorker.

Well, all that demand sent the cost of housing into the stratosphere. We have houses here that go from half a million to a million bucks that would probably only get 200 grand in Kansas City. Back to the subject, teachers are human too and they like to live in nice houses just like everybody else. It's just that a nice house out here is gonna cost a fortune.

So yes, we're too crowded, too expensive and the state is run by crooked morons. If you don't like it, don't come here. I won't miss you.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305   2011-04-12 13:11  

#6  I don't have a whole hell of a lot of sympathy.

CA Teachers Assoc.
Posted by: Beavis   2011-04-12 12:12  

#5  And, what Ebbang Uluque6305 said.
Posted by: trailing wife   2011-04-12 12:04  

#4  It's like there's some link between subsidy and falling quality..

I think a big piece is the link between the large number of non-English speaking immigrant students in California (illegal or legal, it doesn't matter) and the ability of the teacher to teach at the speed the English-speaking students can absorb. Separating students by English-language ability would allow the fluent speakers to speed ahead, but many non-English speakers would take years to make the transition. And the average numbers would still be awful.
Posted by: trailing wife   2011-04-12 12:02  

#3  Test scores are at the country's near bottom; teachers' salaries at the very top.

I'm not so keen on the teachers' union myself but there is more to those low test scores than you might think. When half or even more of your elementary school students don't speak English it's pretty hard to teach them. Fact is, a lot of them come to this country illiterate in Spanish and completely ignorant of English. We are prohibited by law from even asking if those kids are here legally. We have to spend OUR tax dollars educating illegal aliens because the FEDERAL government won't secure the border. Most likely it's gotten to the point of no return because the majority of our legislators are elected from neighborhoods like the one you see in the graphic. I've tried to tell you people before, although California takes the brunt of it, this is a FEDERAL problem. As I've tried to tell you before, California used to be a red state. Remember Dick Nixon, Pete Wilson, Sam Hayakawa, Ronald Reagan? California changed because the FEDERAL government refused to enforce the law, because jackasses like Bill Clinton and George Bush were derelict in their duty. Make fun of us all you want but it's just as much your fault as it is mine. Am I pissed off about it? You're damn right I am.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305   2011-04-12 11:48  

#2  ...especially with a total lack of linkage between pay and performance coupled with artificial anchors that debase merit within the schools and families and elevate 'special interests' over all.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2011-04-12 11:33  

#1  > Test scores are at the country's near bottom; teachers' salaries at the very top.

It's like there's some link between subsidy and falling quality...
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2011-04-12 11:24  

00:00