“Add to that the state’s unique place in the degradation of the culture (see Hollywood, San Francisco) which creates and sustains a perverted worldview, and I think one can make a case for California being a place one might want to visit but not live.”
I was born in San Francisco in 1940 and I have lived here all my life. I live in the East Bay today and have lived here since 1952. I have raised three children and am now watching them raise their’s here as well. To suggest that this is a completely depraved place is not supported by the facts. Sure, the RATs have made a mess out of things in recent years, bur so have then done in most other states where they control the governments. It is small minded and counterproductive ( although I can understand that it might make people like yourself feel good to make outlandish statements here on FR) to try and paint an inaccurate picture of our state.
The issue that you raised ( and it was not supported by the facts) was to the effect that our economy was “third world” and failing. California, despite our terrible government, has a flourishing economy. California pays into the Federal government the largest amount of money of any other state and by a considerable margin, and as can be seen by the data I supplied, and gets back far less than it’s contributions. I am wondering since your FR name is SoFlo Freeper if it is indicative of the fact that you reside in South Florida. Interestingly, in view of your comments, that Florida is the premier deadbeat state of all in terms of what it pays into the Federal Government as opposed to what it receives back. In truth by that measurement, Florida does live off of the rest of the states and in all probability gets a lot of that money out of the pockets of Californians. And yet we see that Florida is at the very least a “purple state” that has “given us” Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio and any number of other so-called “conservative leaders.”
So on the issue of economics, your original comments were way wide of the truth, and frankly as a Conservative Californian, I am getting a little tired of all the California Bashing that goes on here on FR, which is headquartered, here down in Fresno. Like Florida, we have our “pockets of shame,” but just like the map of the country, most of the area that comprises our state is populated with decent folks who don’t like what the trash in our cities foists off on us as “elected representatives.” And efforts here ( which unfortunately will go nowhere) to divide the state physically into several smaller, more manageable entities are indicative of the dissatisfaction of people living in the less populated areas.
Personally, I would like to see California go under financially because it would be the most direct way to correct what’s wrong here, but apart from some number of our cities going into bankruptcy, that’s not likely to happen either. In the end, taking pot shots at this state or that, isn’t productive and in so doing we do a disservice to addressing the real tasks we face trying to take back our country.
Didn’t really mean to elicit such an obviously upset response.
I tried to put some caveats in my second post, which apparently went unnoticed.
Particularly, I acknowledged the decent folks (yes, Free Republic’s founders included!!) who still live in California.
Anyway, have a great day.
Very well said, thank you. I am a native San Franciscan, having been born here and now living in South San Francisco. I and others have endured the insults of others who claim we're all gay for living here. Not so. Lots of family people here, with good morals. Most of the people on my block fly the U.S. flag every day. The economy is roaring, lots of jobs, new building going on, and everywhere you look there are baby strollers and children playing. Every other large city I've been to has large pockets of poverty. Not so here. The "ghetto" in SF (Hunters Point/Bayview district) looks like a well-to-do middle-class enclave from other towns, versus the burned-out desolate stretches I've seen in other cities.
Someday we may reclaim California as a conservative state. The liberal trouble-makers came here from elsewhere and lots of them are going back to where they came from.