Posted on 09/07/2009 8:22:57 AM PDT by SmithL
This is not a celebratory Labor Day for California's workers, and that includes government employees who believed that labor contracts and civil service rules gave them bulletproof job protection.
California is mired in one of its worst economic recessions, with unemployment approaching 12 percent and likely to rise higher, but even those with jobs are often pinched by wage freezes and reductions, furloughs and cuts in fringe benefits.
The jobless rate is twice as high as it was a year ago, the California Budget Project points out, and the recession has wiped out the state's employment gains in the last four years. The 57.5 percent of working-age adults who have jobs is the lowest rate in three decades, reflecting both the recession and the ever-growing retiree cohort.
The fact that California has been hit extraordinarily hard has sparked an intense, even bitter, public debate about whether the state has crippled itself for the long term and will not see a return to prosperity even when the rest of the nation recovers.
Conservatives point to the state's high taxes and penchant for regulatory overkill as making it what one state commission called a "job-killing machine." But liberals contend that allowing the state's infrastructure, schools and colleges to erode by reducing spending has made California less innovative and attractive to investment.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Yes, many years ago it was a "false" belief of many that a government job meant never having to say, " I'm laid off".
Only in the real Utopia does that happen.
California is owned and operated by the public employee unions. I see no hope in them ever releasing their chokehold on our state. Excessive pension costs and benefits preclude us from ever addressing other urgent problems.
The author writes: “The 57.5 percent of working-age adults who have jobs is the lowest rate in three decades, reflecting both the recession and the ever-growing retiree cohort.”
No, I don’t believe that. I think the 57.5 percent of working-age adults reflects that fact that California has a huge and growing unemployed underclass that they sustain with transfer payments from those who are working. It isn’t just the blood-sucking public employees feeding like vampires on the economic body of the state — it’s the millions of blood-sucking illegal aliens devouring the flesh of the economic body of the state.
Don’t forget what is happening in the Central Valley area where they have slashed water for irrigation by 90%. That is lots of jobs right there that no longer exist.
Is the state fighting for it’s farmers?
California is OVER, unless they oust the Sacramento vermin with free market Republicans.
And since it is a failure, it is obvious what the solution is:
More of the same! /sarc
Still plenty of money for illegals and outrageous union pension and benefits...
You got that right! Not one word from Boxofrocks or Fineswine. The there’s Cap and Tax -— That’ll really kill it. The Jerks at the State and Federal must be thrown out in 2010 but it may be too late. There are people I know that voted for “change” that can’t look me in the eye.
Unbeliveable!
So where is Intel going?
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