Posted on 04/25/2012 6:00:13 AM PDT by upchuck
[Snipped to conform to excerpting rule]
Nearly four million more people have left the Golden State in the last two decades than have come from other states. This is a sharp reversal from the 1980s, when 100,000 more Americans were settling in California each year than were leaving.
While many middle-class families have moved inland, those regions don't have the same allure or amenities as the coast. People might as well move to Nevada or Texas, where housing and everything else is cheaper and there's no income tax.
And things will only get worse in the coming years as Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown and his green cadre implement their "smart growth" plans to cram the proletariat into high-density housing. "What I find reprehensible beyond belief is that the people pushing [high-density housing] themselves live in single-family homes and often drive very fancy cars, but want everyone else to live like my grandmother did in Brownsville in Brooklyn in the 1920s," Mr. Kotkin declares.
In the governor's dreams, green jobs will replace all of the "tangible jobs" that the state's losing in agriculture, manufacturing, warehousing and construction. But "green energy doesn't create enough energy!" Mr. Kotkin exclaims. "And it drives up the price of energy, which then drives out other things." Notwithstanding all of the subsidies the state lavishes on renewables, green jobs only make up about 2% of California's private-sector work force—no more than they do in Texas.
According to the Tax Foundation, California has the 48th-worst business tax climate. Its income tax is steeply progressive. Millionaires pay a top rate of 10.3%, the third-highest in the country. But middle-class workers—those who earn more than $48,000—pay a top rate of 9.3%, which is higher than what millionaires pay in 47 states. And Democrats want to raise taxes even more.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
No. The great tragedy of California is hubris and denial.
I put this on a par with Cuban emigres leaving Castro’s Cuba. If leftist policies are so great, why do so many people flee them? The people leaving are reluctant to accept big government socialism.
While the Unions, leftists, liberals, illegals, moochers, enviros, minorities and in the back pocket politicians in Sacto have a deathgrip of insanity on the state the only soultion seems to be going Galt on them. Trainwreck up ahead might be the only solution that rattles them to the core but it will take them hitting rock bottom. What an unnecessary shame for a once great state.
It's just south of LAX and east of Manhattan Beach.
Do any FReepers here have some real advice about the area? Thanks in advance.
“Wow, has the Yankee Invasion done it’s damage down there.”
Just who do you think Effed up California? I sure wasn’t those of us who were born here! Good old Babs Boxer is an ideal example. She’s a Brooklyn Transplant, and Nazi Pelosi, she’s from that wonderful, benevolent, crooked, corrupt, D.Alessandro Crime Family from lovely Baltimore, MD. So when I read all the crap from the non-Californians spewing their vituperative BS, I have to say, take a real look at the problem. We have been invaded by the liberal a$$holes from the East Coast who came West like, the termites they are, eating every good place that’s left in this country. Lastly, If CA is such a bad place, how does it spawn a wonderful entity like FR? Do you really think Jim Rob is going to leave too? California has been trashed first because it is a very special place and “attracted” this liberal trash earlier than other, less desirable places. But make no mistake about it, wherever you live, they will eventually get there too. So you had better hope we figure out how to rid ourselves of this scourge sooner rather than later.
Last week I worked 42 hours Monday->Thursday, then loaded up the truck Thursday night. I started home from San Diego at 9:30 PM Thursday night and arrived home in my driveway in Idaho at 3:05 PM on Friday. The return trip to San Diego started at 8:30 AM on Monday and I arrived back in San Diego at 10:30 PM on Monday. It's a long 900+ mile drive. That's as close as I can get to having nearly immediate recourse to a bad situation in CA.
Have a look at this Crime rate graph for Hawthorne.
Sorry to hear of your crummy situation. At least your family is out of CA.
You mentioned driving a truck. The gasoline bill must be eating you alive.
Mr Kotkin does a great job of describing the environment in CA right now.
I have friends there who are desperately trying to move out of the state. They are having trouble on two fronts: 1, their house is on the market for considerably less than they paid for it and they have no one interested in it. 2, Fear that a comparably paying job can't be found outside of CA. They're really stuck.
No regrets...
Thanks for posting that ranking list.
As I was posting this article I was wishing I had that tax ranking info to post in reply #1.
You are quite welcome. It’s always great to know other aspects of the story.
My F150 is used for hauling my motorcycle to San Diego from Idaho. It remains parked except for rainy days and big shopping trips. I ride the bike everywhere. In the period between Jan 2nd and Apr 20, I put 400 miles on the F150. The bike just returned to Idaho has gone 17,000 miles since July 29, 2009. The bike I carried back went from 7507 in June 2010 to 19450 in June 2011. It is back for more duty.
I go to business meetings in CA - mostly SF and SD - and the deterioration over twenty years is amazing.
That having been said, a lot of folks here say they can’t leave because their job in CA pays more than they can make elsewhere. If the state is destroying the economy, how can that be?
We can’t lose agriculture. That’s crazy.
Myth, likely. CA has one of the highest costs of living in the US.
I have developed a friendship with a guy that fled CA with his family about three years ago. He took a hefty pay cut to move. But the cost of living, especially housing, is much lower than CA. He says everything considered, he's breaking about even.
I agree about the deterioration. I went to California (LA area, a little north, Camarillo)...I couldn't believe the decay of the infrastructure. I hadn't been in nearly 15 years and it was staggering what they've done to that state.
It's pretty bad. Stuck here trying like heck to get out.
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