Posted on 08/09/2003 12:28:10 AM PDT by nickcarraway
California: The Golden State's recall vote won't be held until Oct. 7. But the state's citizens already began voting quite a while ago — with their feet.
For Californians, the recent report from the Census Bureau was a shocker. From 1990 to 2000, the Census found, the number of Californians leaving the state was greater than the number of those arriving from other states — a first.
Even during the high-tech boom, people left. From 1995 to 2000, 1.4 million Americans moved to California. But 2.2 million left.
"Unprecedented" is how Hans Johnson, a demographer with the Public Policy Institute of California, described the trend to the Los Angeles Times. Sadly, we agree. And it's not a good thing.
California's image has long been built around it being a place of refuge for the creative, the restless, the underappreciated, the hard-working — a place where people, whatever their pasts, could remake themselves and create a better life.
During the 20th century, Americans from other states poured into California. And the once tiny, underpopulated farm state grew into a giant of 35 million people, with the fifth largest economy on Earth.
Now many of those who helped build the miracle are leaving.
Why? Riots, earthquakes and a steep recession early in the 1990s left many fed up. So they moved to neighboring states, such as Nevada, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, Utah, even Texas.
For many reasons, the exodus continues. It may not end soon.
The state faces an uncertain political future with its recall vote. Its $38 billion deficit has become a symbol of fiscal recklessness. A two-year energy crisis has left businesses and consumers with energy bills way above the national average.
As for taxes, Californians have the fourth highest overall tax burden in the U.S., 10% higher than the national average, according to the Tax Foundation.
Businesses? They're fleeing, too. Facing onerous environmental rules in places like Los Angeles and San Francisco, they can't grow. In a recent small-business survey, more than half said they've stopped hiring and expanding, due to soaring workers' comp costs.
As a result, not enough jobs are being created — and not enough homes are being built. In just the last two years, the state has lost 14% of its factory jobs, while its population has surged 1.6 million.
The state needs more than 200,000 housing units a year just to keep up with population growth. In recent years it's been lucky to get even half of that, thanks to local "growth controls" and run-amok NIMBYism that have helped home prices soar out of reach.
As for immigrants, California still has plenty of them — from outside the U.S. (It's no accident that three of the leading contenders for governor speak English as a second language.)
Among the state's people, 26% were born in another country. Unlike Arnold Schwarzenegger or Arianna Huffington, they're on average poorer, less educated and have higher welfare participation rates than people born here. Will they be able to run an economy based on high tech, health care and entertainment? We doubt it.
We have no easy answers. We wish we did. But in hemorrhaging its best and brightest to other states, California faces a demographic disaster. Small wonder its citizens want to recall their governor.
OK. I'll give ya Aaahnold and Cruz Bustamante as people who "speak English as a second language." But Zsa Zsa Huffington can't really speak English. She makes Jackie Chan (is he running yet?) sound like the Ronco slicer/dicer salesman.
Bustamante has the welfare-leech element of the hispanic-immigrant vote sewed up. Aahnold probably has the edge on the working-immigrant vote (which includes a subset of the hispanic-immigrants).
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
.... to a consortium, or extended family, of fifty or sixty illegals...
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
he hasn't been able to work his fields for years, until we came and drove out the mullah who had stolen his land -- and asks you to thank George W. Bush and Hamid Karzai for him.
Tell Bush to get off his ass and try and protect our borders and sovereignty for a change. Tell um while Outer Mongolia is having problems, we here in America are being over run from millions entering our country illegally, literally choking off our system. Tell um it's a *national* disgrace, and now a national security disaster. Tell him to wake the hell up.
Thanks.
The Investors Business Daily had an article followed the next day by a commentary on the skyrocketing costs of just Worker's Compensation.
Mitchell Grief, owner of a plastic bag making company "Coast Converters", has 150 employees. In 2001, he paid $225,000 for Workers' Comp. In 2002, it rose to $330,000. This year it is $570,000. By staying in LA he will pay $700,000, over $4500 per employee just for worker's compensation. He has moved out of California, and 2/3rds of his employees followed him.
Just think about that. $4500 per employee just for worker's compensation. Then add $1500 in FICA and Medicare tax, then Unemployment Tax and other outright seizures and theft by government. The US worker already has $5/hr disadvantage over his illegal alien or overseas competitor. The US factory laborer needs to add at least $5/hr more value than the illegal alien before he or she is even considered to be of equal value in the eyes of the employer.
Our government is our enemy. These wicked and depraved souless beings in our capitol buildings are actively seeking ways to destroy us and destroy the US economy. Calfornia is just the most obnoxious and obvious about their utter contempt and hatred for America.
We are close approaching the point where we need to realize that the Arnold's Circus Act is just a sideshow to captivate the masses and we really need to utilize our 2nd Amendment Rights.
Don't forget the I-35 'NAFTA Freeway' hasn't been expanded to handle the massive increase in Mexico traffic
and picking up the problems of-- a Houston/Dallas/San Antonio.
I read an article in the Austin [Real-e]Statesman some time ago, (back when I subscribed to such a thin leftist pamphlet of a newspaper) and they reported that the everage commute times were fewer than 20 seconds than that of a Dallas resident.
The city "planners" in Austin don't believe in building E/W and N/S corridors, but rather closed off community next to closed off community, forcing everyone to get on a freeway, or drive in complicated zig-zag paths. Even their highways are deliberately designed so that one waits at every possible traffic light no matter what time of day or density of traffic.
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