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The California Paradox: if Immigration Creates Wealth, Why is California Poor?
National Economics Editorial ^ | February 12, 2018 | Spencer P Morrison

Posted on 02/19/2018 10:41:32 AM PST by LibertyFound

How Immigration Turned California into America’s Poverty Capital

California is a land of untold opulence and splendor. Hollywood’s glitter dazzles the gawking masses, while the world’s most profitable companies, Google, Apple, and Facebook, funnel cash into the Golden State from every corner of the earth. It is the apotheosis of decadence.

And yet California is also desperately poor. One-in-five Californians live in poverty, the State’s income inequality is worse than Mexico’s, and untold thousands live on the streets. It is dystopia. How can so much wealth and poverty coexist? This is the California Paradox.

It was not always this way. California used to be home to America’s largest and most affluent middle class. Now it is a playground for the rich and a prison for the poor. This begs the question: how did the Golden State become America’s poverty capital?

Fear & Loathing in Los Angeles

According to the US Census Bureau’s Official Poverty Measure, California’s poverty rate hovers around 15 percent. But this figure is misleading: the Census Bureau measures poverty relative to a uniform national standard, which doesn’t account for differences in living costs between states—the cost of taxes, housing, and healthcare are higher in California than in Oklahoma, for example.

Accounting for these differences reveals that California’s real poverty rate is 20.6 percent—the highest in America. This is nearly twice the national average of 12.7 percent. Many Californians live in abject poverty. In fact, one-quarter of all homeless Americans live in California, according to a recent report from The New York Times:

More than one-quarter of the total homeless population nationwide lives in California, roughly 114,000. The vast majority are “unsheltered”—a more bureaucratic term to describe the thousands living on the streets, under freeways and tucked into grassy fields and parks in cities all around the state.

(Excerpt) Read more at nationaleconomicseditorial.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: aliens; blogpimp; california; democrats
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To: Mariner

Prima facie proof CA STILL has the largest and most affluent middle class in America.


21 posted on 02/19/2018 11:06:48 AM PST by Mariner (War Criminal #18)
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To: Mariner

Thats another problem.
Incomes, etc have to be figured on a PPP (purchasing power parity) basis.


22 posted on 02/19/2018 11:07:11 AM PST by buwaya
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To: LibertyFound

Again, as always with the left’s immigration deceptions, include the word ILLEGAL.


23 posted on 02/19/2018 11:08:38 AM PST by polymuser (Its terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged today. - Chesterton)
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To: buwaya

Over 54% of the population owns their own home.

Are the a bunch of states with better numbers?


24 posted on 02/19/2018 11:09:10 AM PST by Mariner (War Criminal #18)
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To: LibertyFound
The future of California will be with rentals, California's homeownership will remain stagnant for the next decade. Link: http://www.doctorhousingbubble.com/california-future-will-be-with-renters-and-rental-household-formation/ Plus I would not be surprised if a large percentage of current homeowners in California have a mortgage on a California home at California home prices and are not financially ready for the next economic downturn that effects real estate. Example here is what $500,000 will get you in Santa Ana: 2518 W Stanford St, Santa Ana, CA 92704 4 beds 2 baths 1,024 sqft
25 posted on 02/19/2018 11:10:33 AM PST by CharlesMartelsGhost
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To: LibertyFound

Illegal aliens create wealth and a lifetime office for crooked politicians.


26 posted on 02/19/2018 11:11:41 AM PST by Moonman62 (Make America Great Again!)
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To: LibertyFound

The new tax law is going to gut California. Right now California is sort of doing ok. They have a debt. But that debt is going to go through the roof, during the next recession. And it will go down hill fast, even though they have the ports, the movie business agriculture and silicon valley.


27 posted on 02/19/2018 11:12:23 AM PST by poinq
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To: CharlesMartelsGhost
My cats have more space than that.
28 posted on 02/19/2018 11:12:54 AM PST by Fightin Whitey
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To: SpaceBar

When I arrived in CA In January of 1952, San Diego had a Republican majority; LA was about 50/60 split between R and D. SF was marginally R; The CA legislature had a Republican majority; Orange County was lopsidedly Republican; a Republican was governor, and Ronald Reagan was waiting in the wings.


29 posted on 02/19/2018 11:13:15 AM PST by luvbach1 (I hope Trump runs roughshod over the inevitable obstuctionists, Dems, progs, libs, or RINOs!)
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To: LibertyFound

To answer the title…Because Marxists (like Muslims) consider lying a perfectly acceptable way of getting their way.


30 posted on 02/19/2018 11:14:08 AM PST by Vaquero (Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
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To: LibertyFound

damnocrats


31 posted on 02/19/2018 11:15:20 AM PST by onedoug
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To: Mariner

In raw numbers, CA may have the largest, most affluent middle class. But that ignores several things: First, as a percentage of the state population and in comparison to the upper and lower classes, where does CA stand when measured against other states?

And as for “affluent”, how affluent are they once you start taking cost-of-living into account? Are those homeowners really that affluent? If you leave out home valuation since buyers are scarce and most don’t have the ability to pay what the market portrays as home values, are any CA residents really flush with cash? Or do they just look “affluent” on paper because they own a house with an unrealistically high “value”?


32 posted on 02/19/2018 11:15:59 AM PST by Little Pig
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To: Mariner

The article refers to proportion, not absolute numbers.

If you were to look at absolute numbers, you would find that CA has the largest poverty class in the country. This goes hand-in-hand with the proportion.

For CA to be on a par with the national average, another 8% of the population would have to be lifted out of poverty. But CA politicians will do everything they can to grow the poverty class while driving out the middle class.

As I asked, don’t CA schools teach math or deductive reasoning any more?

It’s a real shame to see what has happened to CA. People often ask if I plan to return when I retire, and my answer is always no, because CA is insane now. The cost of living is sky-high, while the quality of life just keeps plummeting. And economic and social illiterates run Sacto.


33 posted on 02/19/2018 11:17:18 AM PST by exDemMom (Current visual of the hole the US continues to dig itself into: http://www.usdebtclock.org/)
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To: LibertyFound

Every illegal and their illegal kin, who settle in California bring zero skill and language abilities/sets to make a living in this high tech world of Capitalism.

So, they go on welfare and suck up $’s that used to go into roads, bridges and other infrastructure.

Public school standards are lowered to serve as free day care with free lunches and sometimes dinner for their hordes of children.

Then, they flood our universities to study social welfare/warfare courses that bring zero value to our state.

Their degrees become IUD’s, Instant Unemployment Degrees. Then they get jobs with the Feds/State/Counties/cities to spread their miserable outlook on life.

Drugged out America bums become the chosen ones versus those with developed skills to work and make a living in California.


34 posted on 02/19/2018 11:20:26 AM PST by Grampa Dave (Never pick a fight with an angry beehive of 63+ million Trump Deplorables. You will lose!)
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To: CharlesMartelsGhost
Can you imagine spending $500,000 for a home in Santa Ana of all places?

Wowza...

Check this, looks like a 60 year old home in COMPTON for $450,000...lol.

Who in hell is going to spend that kind of money for a home in Compton?

35 posted on 02/19/2018 11:26:48 AM PST by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/1415-S-Cliveden-Ave_Compton_CA_90220_M16232-69165

Compton home.


36 posted on 02/19/2018 11:27:38 AM PST by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: dragnet2
Who in hell is going to spend that kind of money for a home in Compton?

I suppose Dr. Dre and Ice Cube could afford it.

37 posted on 02/19/2018 11:28:16 AM PST by dfwgator
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To: LibertyFound

.
California is two states within one boundary.

There is California, and there is the Democrat plantation.
.


38 posted on 02/19/2018 11:28:27 AM PST by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: CharlesMartelsGhost

probably worth $120K in Wisconsin.


39 posted on 02/19/2018 11:29:12 AM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now it is your turn ...)
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To: LibertyFound
I think....those that make 100k or more...should give 1/2 back to those that don't make that kind of money.

Yeah...let CA..lead the way!!!

40 posted on 02/19/2018 11:31:02 AM PST by Osage Orange (Watch your six.)
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