The California Paradox: if Immigration Creates Wealth, Why is California Poor?

National Economics Editorial ^ | February 12, 2018 | Spencer P Morrison

[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.

[Lurkinanloomin]

I don’t want to live anywhere that bars are necessary on every window.

[editor-surveyor]

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The time will come!

You can’t buy any house that cheap in northern CA, even in San Pablo.

West Pittsburg, now renamed “Bay Point,” was once like Compton, and was dubbed “Dodge City” by the Contra Costa Sheriff Dept. Housing there is 600K and above presently.
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[editor-surveyor]

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There are parts of Los Angeles where 3/8” steel plate is mandatory on inside front walls.
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[CharlesMartelsGhost]

Reminds me of when I worked for a defense contractor in Mississippi. We had many California transplants, who sold their shoe box Cali homes, like this photo, and were able to buy a home in the nicest suburbs of Jackson or acreage with a home and still have money to put in the bank. Also for all those Californians who've paid off their mortgage, where are the up and coming home owners, there are only so many foreign buyers. It isn't the millennials:

[dragnet2]

Sure you can.

[rdcbn]

In truth, California is a lot less poor than the statistics show.

There are a lot of people in California living on multiple false identitys and each false identity is living on multiple forms of government welfare.

This is essentially government sanctioned welfare fraud because California politicians are fully aware of the rampant fraud the social welfare system.

California's political class enables the fraud by making sure just about anyone who files for any of California's myriad of generous welfare programs automatically qualifies and gets enrolled. Once enrolled, these same politicians and bureaucrats block any and all auditing or investigation of recipients. The legislature has went so far as to prohibit finger printing of recipients to prevent the discovery of people receiving fraudulent benefits, especially receipt of benefits under multiple false identities

They also work under the table, mostly for cash, but often on normal jobs - also under fake identity fraud using stolen social security numbers

If you go to Hispanic dominated places like the Pico Rivera Walmart on EBT day, you will find long lines of non English speaking illegal aliens backed up 20 deep on each cash register, all paying with California's distinctive EBT card.

All are well dressed and driving the nice late model cars parked in the parking lots. None even remotely look like they have missed a meal in their lives.

After check out, they visit the WalMart remittance desk and send their weekly $250 payment to family in Mexico or other points South of the Border.

This is the illegal underground economy - enabled by California politicians and paid fir by the gullible voters and hard pressed working stiffs in California at the state level and the other 49 states at the Federal Level

[editor-surveyor]

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Do it then!

Guaranteed turn-around profit.
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[pabianice]

>>Don’t they teach math or deductive reasoning in CA schools any more?

No! Both are racist!

[Texicanus]

Because when people bend or ignore the laws of economics, math, nature, or whatever laws of the physical universe, it eventually will come back to kick them in the a$$ with a vengeance. Hard facts and common sense have be tossed to wind in favor of political correctness by the jacka$$es that control these states.

What Kalifornica and other red states (to a lesser extent) are doing is setting themselves up for a royal a$$ whooping. It’s like giving them enough rope and watching them hang themselves.

I pray for the people (who disagree with their state laws and political representatives) who can’t escape. They will become collateral damage when the SHTF bigtime. My advice is to cover your a$$ and get the hell out of there before it’s too late. The facts seem to indicate this happening in these state but they won’t admit it.

[editor-surveyor]

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What you have identified is why Trump is confident he can pay for a wall with “Mexican” money, by simply taxing those transfers.
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[tflabo]

Ca parallels to Venezuela aplenty. Both have tyrannical leaders— Moonbeam is Maduro light. The voting is corrupt, the government welfare to the sheeples are enormous. The price of goods and services are sky high. Venezuela takes over many private companies and Ca over regulates and taxes them in control. There are multiple poor, homeless and shanty living spaces. The situation is far worse in Venezuela but if Ca. was a nation rather than a state it would be just like a lil sister of Venz.

[Ohioan]

When you replace the more affluent California families--the high achievers in the material quests--with folks who did not achieve at a comparable pace in their own native lands; you have to expect a corresponding decline in average levels of achievement. The result is totally predictable to anyone not hopelessly indoctrinated in egalitarian Leftist social theory.

An American Immigration Policy;

Greatest Mischief.

[Texicanus]

I apologiz for the mssing or incomplet wording bu my proof readr is out today.

[sparklite2]

. One-in-five Californians live in poverty
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No matter how much income equality there may be, there will always be a bottom fifth of society.  Always.  So we (THEY) move up the asset-held level to whatever that bottom fifth's assets happen to be, creating a new 'poverty line,' which doesn't ease poverty but merely redefines it.

The only way to eliminate poverty is what communism advocates, but does not attain, by keeping everyone at the same asset level.  The problem with that is it destroys the incentive to perform, and the free-riders will dominate until no one has anything. That's just human nature.

Rather than deny human nature,  Marxists opt to change the nature of humans, achieving Utopia.  That's where Soviet Man comes in.  He's had his hard drive reformatted and loaded with Utopian software.  Except the Soviets had sixty years of indoctrination without achieving Soviet Man.

They would have been better advised to use a little ju-jitsu and use man's desire to get stuff  (Greed is Good or at least can be harnessed.) to let him make money and take a little of it for governance.  But of course, that is capitalism, which didn't fit Marx's narrative.  Why we teach his idiocy in college illustrates the desire for Utopia by those to whom history is a blank slate and their ever-recycled conceit, "This time it's different

[AlexisHeavyMetal1981]

You mention Pico Rivera. You living there now? I grew up there and looking back I can remember 1962 in second grade 80% of my classmates where “white”. My family came up through Mexico. I had no idea I was “Mexican” until junior year in high school, but that only lasted 1 year. I always thought red white and blue.

Nowadays the population is 90% Hispanic surname. But what gives me hope that the populace may be awakening is the Gregory Salcido affair. Hopefully people will realize that voting for Democrats (Marxists, La Raza, Aztlan ) is voting for hatred of America and Freedom

I was heartened by the number of Hispanic veterans that showed up to the PR council meeting held at the school to denounce Mr. Salcido.

Yes, good old Pico Rivera.

[CharlesMartelsGhost]

The Left remains enamored with socialism/communism.

It’s like that because they each picture themselves becoming one of the big shots with the nice dacha, but none of them imagines they’ll end up a corpse in a mass grave.

[fr_freak]

And as a corollary to that, why is the homeless population in CA growing by leaps and bounds?

If you were going to be homeless, would you rather be homeless in California or North Dakota?

[dragnet2]

You can’t buy any house that cheap (500k) in northern CA, even in San Pablo.

Sure ya can. You clearly don't know the real estate market in N.CA.

[rdcbn]

Don't live in Pico but have worked there sporadically over the years

Have watched it change from a white collar bedroom community to an emerging illegal alien no go zone

Last time I stayed there was a few years ago and it's gotten much worse since then

Really liked the people -good hard working folks,and nice people who are very entrepreneurial .

They were just largely illegal aliens and many were having no problems what so ever defrauding the tax payer funded California social welfare system for all its worth

The local gym was filled to capacity with polite, hard working men and women way past midnight and I got see a lot of truly unique body art.

In a way, I couldn't blame the illegals for taking advantage of the California crazy limo liberals.

If fact, I kind of enjoyed seeing them give the moronic California taxpayers the screwing they so richly deserve for screwing up a once paradise with leftist crap

[editor-surveyor]

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Keep on being an idiot!
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