[TurboZamboni]

Moonbeam's supertrain will turn this all around...(sarc)

[Travis McGee]

Can’t say I blame anybody for fleeing Mexicalifornistan.

[originalbuckeye]

We lived in California for 19 years. We loved the state. There is so much to do, the weather is pretty terrific and it is just plain beautiful. In 2009, my husband's company picked up and left the state. So we moved with the company. I also have a friend just south of San Francisco who has lived there for 35 years. She owns her house and is an employee of the state. She doesn’t even think she can afford to retire there. It makes me so sad to think California will fail. But I think it must. The USA cannot afford to help.

[raybbr]

Isn’t the supertrain a way out? Of course, libs, being stupid beyond belief, will never see it that way.

[ClearCase_guy]

Words that do NOT appear in this article:

Hispanic
Illegal
Alien
Immigrants

[central_va]

Fleeing Californicans, do not come to the South, you'd not ne happy there. We are nothing but a bunch of toothless rednecks that hang dead deer from out front porches and consider any spectacle with the number 500 in it a cultural event. We think the movie Deliverance was a documentary.

You'd feel more at home in Yankeeland and will fit right in. Go there.

[MulberryDraw]

all of the subsidies the state (California) lavishes on renewables, green jobs only make up about 2% of California's private-sector work force—no more than they do in Texas.

LOL! Now that's funny. And we have all the "evil" drillin going on too.

[umgud]

CA will crash. It’s on an unsustainable trajectory. If the economy turns areound, it may see a brief respite, but the crash is inevitable.

Too many people hold out hope that CA will be positively rebuilt after said crash, but let me point out that the same cast of characters will still be at the table after said crash.

My view is that CA will deteriorate to near 3rd world status and suck the life out of the fed and other US taxpayers.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

My employer is moving my job out of the state this summer. Because they can.

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

Great news from here in Massachusetts!

We’ve lost a House seat, due to our declining population!

No need to thank me, but please tip your waitress on the way out. ( /rim shot)

[Baseballguy]

No different when the new england left for the south. What they find when they move is most of the culture they left can not be rebuilt where they go. No matter how they try.

Now you can see who voted for who in the republican party for pres and you choose your candidate and thats where most of the folks went.

Newt is SC land

[Mr Ramsbotham]

Mr. Kotkin describes himself as an old-fashioned Truman Democrat. In fact, he voted for Mr. Brown—who previously served as governor, secretary of state and attorney general—because he believed Mr. Brown "was interesting and thought outside the box."

That's B.S. He voted for Brown because he's a dyed-in-the-wool liberal who feared that if a Republican become governor there would be one fewer abortion per year in the state.

[GreyFriar]

Perhaps someone will write a novel about this reversal of the story line in “The Grapes of Wrath.”

[PGR88]

In fact, he voted for Mr. Brown—who previously served as governor, secretary of state and attorney general—because he believed Mr. Brown "was interesting and thought outside the box."

Idiot. The author lost all credibility with me at that point. Just as with Obama, everyone knew EXACTLY what they were getting.

[WMarshal]

California is just the start of the problem. Poor young college graduates being crushed under student loan debt are going to start leaving the country in droves just to escape the lifelong debt. Many graduates face a bright future in the services industry. I had 45K when I graduated with my masters and paid it off in one payment after paying on it for 8 years and not seeing the principle drop one cent. There is no way a student without and engineering degree with 100K to 200K debt is going to pay it off in this economy.

That is why they are trying to pass the law where owing back taxes will invalidate your passport. You cannot leave the plantation if you owe money.

[MachIV]

You couldn’t give me all the gold in Ft. Knox to move to California.

[moovova]

"Mr. Kotkin describes himself as an old-fashioned Truman Democrat. In fact, he voted for Mr. Brown..."

So, Mr. Kotkin...STFU! You Sir, have NO RIGHT TO COMPLAIN!

[Psycho_Bunny]

So, you get halfway through the article to discover that the guy who has a pretty good grasp of what’s wrong in California says HE VOTED FOR BROWN thinking that Brown would move to fix the problems.

This boils down to being an article about a moron.

[outpostinmass2]

The amazing thing is that California had productive industry, educated labor and abundance of natural resources. Things that Greece has very little of.

[Savage Beast]

California certainly WAS one of God's best moments and one of the best places in the world to live--from its very beginning through the 19th century (witness Richard Henry Dana's Two Years before the Mast,) and through much of the 20th century--until the forces of decadence rotted the civilization of its inhabitants.

Today the once Golden State decays, its ancient beauty and promises mocked by the absurdities and self-destruction of the ancient enemy of all civilizations.

Spring forever keeps its ancient promise, but only to follow the darkness and severity of winter, cold consolation for those who concern themselves with the foreseeable future.

[Yaelle]

Look, the politics here are liberal and terrible.

But do note, as you all complain of how horrible Californians are and how you don’t want us ruining your state, that there are MORE solid conservatives here than in your state. CA started Free Republic and CA donates more than most states. There are great people here too.