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California's Gold Rush Has Been Reversed (Entrepreneurs are fleeing heavy taxes in the state)
Wall Street Journal ^ | January 10,2009 | DEVIN NUNES

Posted on 01/10/2009 8:42:51 AM PST by SeekAndFind

On Jan. 24, 1848, James Wilson Marshall found gold at Sutter's Mill, in Coloma, Calif., sparking a mad rush of some 300,000 people desiring to strike it rich. San Francisco grew from a tiny hamlet to a boomtown in no time, and in 1850 California entered the Union as the 31st state.

With this history at their back, state leaders might have understood that people have a propensity to get up and move when a better life is to be had elsewhere. But no. After more than 150 years of being a destination, California is becoming a place entrepreneurs, investment capital and the hardy workers who made it a global leader in agriculture, technological innovation and scientific research are fleeing. This exodus is the marker of something deeper than a national recession. It's a sign that the attempts by state leaders to spend their way back to prosperity are killing California.

While it has the sixth highest tax burden in the nation, according to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation, California is facing a breathtaking $40 billion budget deficit this year. This comes on the heels of a decade-long spending spree. Last year the state budget was $131 billion, up from $56 billion in 1998.

Citizens are burdened by all manner of state regulations. To mention just one example, this year a new law enacted by ballot initiative bans cages chicken farmers use on the grounds that it is inhuman to put birds in cages that prevent them from spreading their wings. Complying with the new law will cost farmers hundreds of millions of dollars, which will force many to leave the state. And that will force us to buy our eggs from other states and, possibly, others nations, such as Mexico.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: bluestates; california; exodus; goldrush; taxes
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1 posted on 01/10/2009 8:42:52 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

California is hopeless.


2 posted on 01/10/2009 8:44:00 AM PST by FlingWingFlyer (CIA Director!....So easy, a caveman can do it!)
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To: SeekAndFind

Citizens too dumb to figure out that massive spending is their problem. What can you do but shake your head and leave.


3 posted on 01/10/2009 8:44:50 AM PST by Tarpon (America's first principles, freedom, liberty, market economy and self-reliance will never fail.)
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To: SeekAndFind

NOTE THIS STATISTIC FOLKS :

In 2000, according to the state’s Department of Finance, about 150,000 people moved into California. But in the years that followed the in-migration slowed, and in 2005 it reversed, when a net 52,000 people moved out. In 2008, the outflow topped 135,000 people.

Consequently, Idaho, Utah and Wyoming all have unemployment rates around 5% at a time when California is suffering an unemployment rate of 9%. Californians are moving east and creating jobs in their new home states.

I’M NOT SURE HOW THIS CAN BE REVERSED BECAUSE CALIFORNIANS CONTINUE TO VOTE IN THE SAME PEOPLE WHO CAUSED THIS PROBLEM IN THE FIRST PLACE. Taxes remain high, and lawmakers employ all the tricks in the book to produce “balanced” budgets from shifting expenses around to borrowing ever larger sums of money. NOT LOOKING GOOD AT ALL.


4 posted on 01/10/2009 8:45:41 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind
If you are a liberal Californian heading to Texas... DON'T. I'll whip your butt personally. We have enough of you Kalifornicators as it is...
5 posted on 01/10/2009 8:46:10 AM PST by avacado
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To: SeekAndFind

Just keep them out of here.

Californians come in and start turning this state into another California. Stay there.


6 posted on 01/10/2009 8:46:32 AM PST by GreyMountainReagan (Liberals really intend to increase the misery through their actions. Gives them power)
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To: SeekAndFind

While traveling on Hwy 395 recently, I couldn’t help but notice all the stores, gas stations, and a shopping plaza that were boarded up.

Our buddy had a business in the state for several years. Due to high taxes, he shut his operation down several years ago.

These are perfect examples of the natural progression (or should I say regression) of Socialism/Communism.


7 posted on 01/10/2009 8:48:15 AM PST by This Just In (Support Christian Homeschoolers)
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To: Tarpon; NormsRevenge; 2ndDivisionVet; justiceseeker93; celtic gal; ladyvet; BossLady; ZULU; ...

The Liberal mental illness and drunken spending you describe is infesting the entire country. Soon there will be no where to flee.


8 posted on 01/10/2009 8:48:38 AM PST by ExTexasRedhead
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To: SeekAndFind

I have a letter written by a grgruncle in 1850, while in California gold mining after a long trip from Texas. The conditions were terrible, the work unforgiving. I’m sure they’d be heartbroken over the mess we’ve made of California.


9 posted on 01/10/2009 8:48:57 AM PST by AuntB (The right to vote in America: Blacks 1870; Women 1920; Native Americans 1925)
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To: SeekAndFind

I just came back from a 3 week visit to California. I was there with my family to investigate if we should move there (most of my family is in Northern California).

As much as we loved the scenery (it is truly gorgeous) and the Wine Country (if I had to, I would live in Napa or Sonoma), we figured out plenty quick that two things basically killed our plans

1. Hyper liberal atmosphere. While my family over there continues to insist that there are “pockets of conservatism”, I don’t want to live in a ghetto inside walled compounds.

2. High taxes. Both my wife and I are still producing income (and will do so for decades to come). The highly confiscatory tax rates will basically put us behind where we have been for 10 years in Texas

So we came to a conclusion. We will take frequent vacations to California (as many as four a year) and it will still be cheaper and happier than living in California.

God Bless and Help California. They are in a world of trouble.


10 posted on 01/10/2009 8:49:18 AM PST by SoftwareEngineer
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To: SeekAndFind
They need a new add campaign. How about this for a slogan:

California. The New Michigan.

11 posted on 01/10/2009 8:49:23 AM PST by tbpiper (Al Gore is to Global Warming what Berney Madoff is to Finance .)
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To: Tarpon

“Citizens too dumb to figure out that massive spending is their problem. What can you do but shake your head and leave.”

Not really, many of us know it’s been out of control for years. There are just too many with their hand out wanting, demanding that spending. Hundreds of thousands of them shouldn’t even be in this country. Immigration is determining the outcome of California....the canary in the coal mine.


12 posted on 01/10/2009 8:51:06 AM PST by AuntB (The right to vote in America: Blacks 1870; Women 1920; Native Americans 1925)
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To: SeekAndFind

The Legislature is trying all kinds of tricks to raise money without calling them tax increases (which would require a 2/3 approval). I hope the people moving out aren’t liberals who will take their politics with them to adjoining conservative states like the people from Taxachusetts have done.


13 posted on 01/10/2009 8:51:14 AM PST by randita
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To: GreyMountainReagan
Just keep them out of here.

It's impossible unless you create a visa for interstate migration. For better or worse, this is the UNITED States of America. People who cause problems in one state by voting in the wrong people will abandon the state's problems for greener pastures.

Look what's happening to the "LIVE FREE OR DIE" state, New Hampshire. It has now turned DEMOCRAT as neighboring liberals from Massachusetts take up residence there. Pretty soon, you'll see this state enact a state income tax. Mark my words.
14 posted on 01/10/2009 8:51:28 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: GreyMountainReagan

They already messed up Colorado. Since our State House is back in session, our public benefactors even have a bill to eliminate the rolling 25 year rule on emissions testing on old vehicles like in CA. It is Senate Bill 9 and Bacon is one of the sponsors.


15 posted on 01/10/2009 8:52:11 AM PST by CORedneck
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To: SoftwareEngineer
So we came to a conclusion. We will take frequent vacations to California (as many as four a year) and it will still be cheaper and happier than living in California.

Just curious, what state are you from ?
16 posted on 01/10/2009 8:52:33 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: ExTexasRedhead
Well at least in Florida they are trying to control costs, not succeeding, but trying. But on it's face, you are right. It's as if the government believed it's own fairy tale of the endless rising taxes receipts because of endless rising house tax assessments. I know our local stooges did.

I still remember back in 2005 with Bush crowing that more people own their own home than ever. The part he didn't explain was how many of those owners couldn't pay for them.

17 posted on 01/10/2009 8:52:34 AM PST by Tarpon (America's first principles, freedom, liberty, market economy and self-reliance will never fail.)
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To: FlingWingFlyer
The sad thing is that Obama will bail out California, to spread the pain around to the rest of us.
18 posted on 01/10/2009 8:52:44 AM PST by marktwain
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To: AuntB

Sorry, I keep forgetting, freepers are much smarter than the average sheeple.

The USA cannot support the whole world. That is now becoming clear. Immigrants are now just stealing the jobs Americans used to have.


19 posted on 01/10/2009 8:54:20 AM PST by Tarpon (America's first principles, freedom, liberty, market economy and self-reliance will never fail.)
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To: SeekAndFind

The problem though is the idiots leave KaliFornication and then vote for the same liberal dumbasses that destroyed that state in thier new location.


20 posted on 01/10/2009 8:59:10 AM PST by commish
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