The Late Great California

November 2008
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The Late Great California

09 November 2008

George Rebane

This weekend Paul Krugman in the NYT ( ‘The Obama Agenda’ ) tells half the country that there’s something wrong with them because they were not teary-eyed when Obama was elected. He also advises the president-elect to go forward with his big socialistic plans – damn the torpedoes and all that. And he is quite sanguine about next year’s deficit exceeding $1,000,000,000,000 (yep, that’s a trillion) even after the ‘rich’ are taxed to give tax cuts to the class in which most people don’t pay income taxes. Somehow it will be all paid for by an economy that will grow on the basis of public funding of infrastructure projects. One wonders what is the real basis for getting a Nobel Prize in economics. But then I’m still wondering about similar laurels heaped on Al Gore and Yasser Arafat.

East coast Krugman should take a look across the country at the left coast to see what all this taxing, no spending cuts, and growth of government will do. California, as usual, continues to lead the way. In the Nov/Dec issue of The American, Joe Kotkin describes the ongoing fall and decay of our golden state (‘Sundown for California’). In the last decade or so, the rush to California has slowed down, reaching about even in 2000. Seven years later the net movement of people is an annual out-migration of 260,000. And the folks who are leaving aren’t the ones with their hands out.

It’s not my intent here to repeat the development of Kotkin’s arguments, which indeed will bring a tear to the eye of those who know what has been happening. There are a few points worth highlighting from the article –

As pet social programs, entitlements, and state employee pensions soared, infrastructure spending shrank drastically;
As much as 50 percent of the state’s job growth in the 2000s relied on an inflated property market; and job growth rate has lagged by almost 20% the national average;
California has the 15th highest poverty rate in the nation. Only New York and District of Columbia fare worse if the cost of living is factored in;
Meanwhile the dunces (attribution mine) in Sacramento are piling on more regulations and raising taxes.

California has one of the nation’s highest fractions of college educated people over 65; and now the fraction of similarly educated 25-34 year-olds ranks way down on the national ladder. The smart ones continue to leave to climes more conducive to wealth generation – e.g. like Texas – and younger ones are not as educated. The “left’s radical social agenda” continues unhindered with our governator being helpless to slow the annual growth rate of California’s budget – 7% under Davis has become 10% under Schwarzenegger. And now we have the prospect of Governor Moonbeam returning to Sacramento’s chief executive suite with Obama in Washington. The mullahs are rolling in the aisles. Can anyone spell ‘perfect storm’?

A parting thought to the Krugmans of our country – it is the far left that thought electing a black president was the emotional event for our times. The rest of us have thought the country ready for a president irrespective of gender or race for long while now. But what has brought tears to many eyes on both sides is that we are now also able to elect candidates irrespective of their beliefs, experience, and background. And the rest of the nation’s progressives are singing ‘California Here We Come!’

Posted in Culture Comments, Our Country

3 responses to “The Late Great California”

Russ Steele

09 November 2008

Joel Kotkin has more bad news for traditional industries, including those in California that generate carbon in his 5 Novermber, 2008 Article in Forbes, The triumph of the Creative Class
What will this [creative class] ascendancy mean in economic terms? Since the creative class deals largely with images, ideas and transactions, it’s not likely to focus much on reviving the tangible parts of the economy: manufacturing, logistics, traditional energy and agribusiness.
On the other hand, the creatives are unlikely to be protectionist since they represent companies whose growth markets, and often suppliers, are located overseas. Heavily counted among the world’s richest people, they are also likely to support some Bushite policies—like low interest rates and financial bailouts—that prop up their stock prices and drive money to Wall Street.
The biggest difference between the creative class and the old business types isn’t on cultural issues—few traditional CEOs embraced the religious right’s agenda—but on environmental policy. Executives at places like Apple, as well as opportunistic investment firms, have become enthusiastic jihadis in the war against climate change. Conveniently, their companies don’t tend to be huge energy consumers and, if they make products, do so in largely unregulated facilities in China or elsewhere in the developing world. And youthful financial firms looking for the next “bubble” could benefit hugely from mandates for more solar, wind and other alternative fuels.
All this could prove very bad news for groups that produce tangible products in the U.S. or that, like large agribusiness firms, are big consumers of carbon. Also threatened will be anyone who builds the suburban communities—notably single-family houses and malls—that most Americans still prefer but that Gore and his acolytes dismiss as too energy-intensive, not to mention in bad taste.
California’s agribusiness produce 6% of the states greenhouse gases, traditional energy 23% and logistics (transportation) 38%, manufacturing 20% These are the industries targeted by CARB.

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Jeff Pelline

09 November 2008

This blog should be renamed “me, myself and i.” here’s the part that cracks me up:
“California has one of the nation’s highest fractions of college educated people over 65; and now the fraction of similarly educated 25-34 year-olds ranks way down on the national ladder.” so what? typical ivory tower stuff. maybe the ivory tower of the ’50s and ’60s was irrelevant after all. it’s kind of looking that way, eh? don’t swim against the tide: learn from it. besides in the ivory tower, you sign your checks on the back, not the front.

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Scott Obermuller

09 November 2008

California is going down the tube and Jeff’s advice is to “learn from it”. What you are supposed to understand is that ambitious, educated young people are leaving the state. The ivory tower of the 50’s and 60’s was not irrelevant, it was one of the major engines of growth in this state. Towards the end of the 60’s and increasingly towards the present it has been discarded and replaced with high dollar dogma and political correctness. The level of education in this state is deplorable. A high school diploma might as well just be handed out. College degrees (other than engineering and hard sciences) are now awarded to those best able to list all of the reasons that European descent white males are evil and have caused all of the problems in the last 1,000 years. No, Jeff – retired, productive people signed a lot of checks on the front, during the 50’s and 60’s. It’s the current crop of “the tide” that sign only on the back, if only they could write.

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