The Big Idea: California Is So Over

Daily Beast ^ | April 19, 2015 | Joel Kotkin

[QT3.14]

California has met the future, and it really doesn’t work. As the mounting panic surrounding the drought suggests, the Golden State, once renowned for meeting human and geographic challenges, is losing its ability to cope with crises. As a result, the great American land of opportunity is devolving into something that resembles feudalism, a society dominated by rich and poor, with little opportunity for upward mobility for the state’s middle- and working classes.

[MichaelCorleone]

Self inflicted.

[EQAndyBuzz]

If they spent more time fixing the actual problem which is corruption within the unions and the Democrat party, this problem would have been resolved millenia ago.

[Baynative]

Get your tickets in advance for the high speed train ride through the barren central valley desert. It’s sure to be a sell out. (pun intended)

[Logical me]

The Democratic hold over the State for years has destroyed this great State. It will continue its destruction with the import and safe haven for millions of illegals. It is overtaxed and those needs are never worked on but silly foolish project that do not help solve the real problems. California has become the communists mecca. There does not look like any relief since the state is run by just a few cities that are solid Democratic due to welfare handout voters.

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

There does not look like any relief since the state is run by just a few cities that are solid Democratic due to welfare handout voters.

They got their permanent majority. Now there are too many people in the lifeboats, and they're all going to sink.

I pray that the nation doesn't endure the same fate.

[Let's Roll]

They won’t all sink - unfortunately their “entitled” survivors will invade their neighbor states with all that, that implies.

[Hotlanta Mike]

I left in 1993, it was already over by then.

[Trapped Behind Enemy Lines]

I think even the Communists would do a better job running CA than the Dems.

At least the Communists would have no problem drilling for oil or supplying water to the collective farms.

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[Trapped Behind Enemy Lines]

And...I forgot one...even the Communists would secure border. Ever know a Communist country that didn’t have tightly secured borders?

[Steve_Seattle]

The left does not like too many people to be too comfortable or too independent. It favors the creation of a proletariat that is utterly dependent upon government, ruled by a bureaucratic/technical/cultural elite who possess most of the wealth.

Note that the big economic movement in today's left is to raise the minimum wage, not to foster the creation of middle-class jobs. But a $15 minimum wage is still low-income wages (barely $30,000 a year, less taxes), not nearly enough to support a traditional middle-class lifestyle.

[The KG9 Kid]

When I was a kid growing up in California in the 1970s, the state population was under 20,000,000 people. All they ever talked about was drought, drought, drought. Conserve water, because we live in a desert, and desert means drought.

Today, the California state population is almost 40,000,000 people and all they talk about is drought, drought, drought. They need to conserve water, because they live in a desert, and desert means drought.

Drought has always been part of California even when the population of California was nothing more than a few scattered bands of indian tribes. Its the least of their problems. California’s problem is Californians.

Who cares? I sure don’t.

[Osage Orange]

You make some good points....unfortunately.

[867V309]

I left in 1993, it was already over by then.

I beat you, just barely.

Much of San Diego stank of urine, like it needed a huge bath. Can't imagine what it's like now.

[Buckeye McFrog]

The Grapes of Wrath 2.0: The Californication

Coming Soon to a Theater Near You!

[1Old Pro]

Not building roads—arguably to be replaced by trains—has not exactly reduced traffic but given California the honor of having eight of the top 20 cities nationally with poor roads; the percentage of Los Angeles-area residents who take transit has, if anything, declined slightly since train-building began. All we are left with are impossible freeways, crumbling streets, and ever more difficulty doing anything that requires traveling.

Bottom line, highway funds have been diverted to social programs all accross America. Our highways and bridges are in major disrepair - all pointing to another mazzive borrowing and new taxes to "supposedly" target repair - until the next social program bankrupcy needs propping up.

[Hotlanta Mike]

The once Golden State now has 25% of its residents on government assistance. Roads and infrastructure need repair, and lack of foresight and political will have doomed the state to water rationing.

[Excellence]

Rush boosted this today (4-21-2015) in the 10:00 hour.