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Is California Cracking Up?
Townhall.com ^ | August 10, 2017 | Victor Davis Hanson

Posted on 08/10/2017 5:20:08 AM PDT by Kaslin

Corporate profits at California-based transnational corporations such as Apple, Facebook and Google are hitting record highs.

California housing prices from La Jolla to Berkeley along the Pacific Coast can top $1,000 a square foot.

It seems as if all of China is willing to pay premium prices to get their children degreed at Caltech, Berkeley, Stanford, UCLA or USC.

Yet California -- after raising its top income tax rate to 13.3 percent and receiving record revenues -- is still facing a budget deficit of more than $1 billion. There is a much more foreboding state crisis of unfunded liabilities and pension obligations of nearly $1 trillion.

Soon, new gas tax hikes, on top of green mandates, might make California gas the most expensive in the nation, despite the state's huge reserves of untapped oil.

Where does the money go, given that the state's schools and infrastructure rank among America's worst in national surveys?

Illegal immigration over the last 30 years, the exodus of millions of middle-class Californians, and huge wealth concentrated in the L.A. basin and Silicon Valley have turned the state into a medieval manor of knights and peasants, with ever fewer in between.

The strapped middle class continues to flee bad schools, high taxes, rampant crime and poor state services. About one-third of the nation's welfare recipients reside in California. Approximately one-fifth of the state lives below the poverty line. More than a quarter of Californians were not born in the United States.

(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: calexit; california; statebudget
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1 posted on 08/10/2017 5:20:08 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: aposiopetic; bestintxas; Bodega; BroJoeK; carolinablonde; COBOL2Java; DuncanWaring; EXCH54FE; ...

Victor Davis Hanson Column


Please Freepmail me, if you want to be added, or removed from the ping list

2 posted on 08/10/2017 5:21:17 AM PDT by Kaslin (Civilibus nati sunt; sunt excernitur - Politicians are not born; they are excreted. (Cicero)
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To: Kaslin
Is California Cracking Up?

I believe North Korea has graciously offered to solve our "California Problem".

3 posted on 08/10/2017 5:26:09 AM PDT by 21st Century Crusader (August 26, 1191)
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To: Kaslin
Is California Cracking Up?

Past tense.....for many....many decades.

4 posted on 08/10/2017 5:29:56 AM PDT by Vaquero (Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
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To: Kaslin

Kalifornia is definitely cracking-up, but the rest of the nation is following right behind led by the Deep State/Media/Academia cabal.


5 posted on 08/10/2017 5:34:25 AM PDT by TTFlyer
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To: Kaslin

The secessionists neglect to consider that if California should successfully secede that their world would be turned upside down. Big corporations would leave, defense contractors would leave. Even the entertainment industry would leave along with their celebrities, the brain drain would be huge. In essence, the state would hallow out in very short order. California would look a lot like Cuba, a beautiful, impoverished desolate country.


6 posted on 08/10/2017 5:40:29 AM PDT by snoringbear (E.oGovernment is the Pimp,)
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To: snoringbear

California would be born again after secession


7 posted on 08/10/2017 5:42:40 AM PDT by bert (K.E.; N.P.; GOPc;WASP .... The Fourth Estate is the Fifth Column)
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To: Kaslin

I’ve wondered this for the last decade or so, even though I have no real interest in California nor have I ever been there. Between Hollywood, Tech, Agriculture and Tourism, it should be an economic shining star and beyond self sustaining.

Two words: Illegals and corruption, I guess. Too bad.


8 posted on 08/10/2017 5:47:40 AM PDT by americas.best.days... ( Donald John Trump has pulled the sword from the stone.)
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To: 21st Century Crusader

Some race-baiter was on Tucker Carlson last week saying that the white working class fleeing Cali was a GOOD thing because it opened up space for more immigrants.


9 posted on 08/10/2017 5:57:44 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: Kaslin

From the article: “Like South Carolina residents in 1861, Calexit advocates seem to assume that federal law should apply everywhere else except in California.”

There, I’ve correct it: “Calexit advocates seem to assume that California law should apply everywhere else.”


10 posted on 08/10/2017 5:59:30 AM PDT by DugwayDuke ("A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest")
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To: Buckeye McFrog

Illegal parasites are sucking the life out of their host, the taxpayers of CA.


11 posted on 08/10/2017 6:04:35 AM PDT by txrefugee (.)
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To: Kaslin

California is hanging on becsuse there are leftist businesses and individuals who will pay any price to keep living there. They are subsidizing the impoverished people who are displacing middle income families.


12 posted on 08/10/2017 6:07:52 AM PDT by Socon-Econ
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To: Kaslin

I was very glad to see Californian in my rear view mirror.


13 posted on 08/10/2017 6:10:48 AM PDT by null and void (ObamaCare, giving the government the power of life and death over Americans since March 23, 2010...)
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To: Kaslin
Yet California -- after raising its top income tax rate to 13.3 percent...

If I lived in Kalifornica, I would be in the 9% bracket vs. the 3.07% flat tax in PA. Even worse, my non-SS retirement income would be taxable, whereas in PA it's exempt.

Glad I don't live there.

14 posted on 08/10/2017 6:11:14 AM PDT by Fresh Wind (Hillary: Go to jail. Go directly to jail. Do not pass GO. Do not collect 2 billion dollars.)
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To: DugwayDuke

Middle income Californian’s fled in droves back in the early 80’s. Living in Colorado, hoards of moving vans pulled in daily as middle class Californian migrated east and north. Having done so, the arriving “immigrants” brought many of their problems, flaky ideas, drugs and troubled kids with them, only to expect their new adopted home state(s) to accept their ideas. Thus, it was the beginning of what many western states now do not “enjoy”. Although several years ago, I too migrated, BACK to whence I came. So far California has not reached the north woods of Wisconsin.


15 posted on 08/10/2017 6:15:43 AM PDT by DaveA37
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To: DugwayDuke

We need a counterpoint to Calexit, where we passively allow California to take the few marbles they haven’t lost and leave.

Something we could call “Caleject” where we actively throw their sorry butts out.

And slam the door after them!


16 posted on 08/10/2017 6:16:22 AM PDT by null and void (ObamaCare, giving the government the power of life and death over Americans since March 23, 2010...)
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To: Fresh Wind

No state income tax here!


17 posted on 08/10/2017 6:17:14 AM PDT by null and void (ObamaCare, giving the government the power of life and death over Americans since March 23, 2010...)
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To: Kaslin

You don’t get into Cal Tech because you live in the state.


18 posted on 08/10/2017 6:19:24 AM PDT by Lisbon1940 (No full-term Governors (at the time of election!)
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To: Kaslin

Will CA fall off the cliff? Or just devolve into a 3rd world country?


19 posted on 08/10/2017 6:22:34 AM PDT by umgud
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To: Kaslin
The Cali "secession" most of America would like to see:


20 posted on 08/10/2017 6:29:29 AM PDT by ScottinVA ( Liberals, go find another country.)
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