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Will California Ever Thrive Again?
Townhall.com ^ | July 7, 2016 | Victor Davis Hanson

Posted on 07/07/2016 5:45:22 AM PDT by Kaslin

There was more of the same old, same old California news recently. Some 62 percent of state roads have been rated poor or mediocre. There were more predictions of huge cost overruns and yearly losses on high-speed rail -- before the first mile of track has been laid. One-third of Bay Area residents were polled as hoping to leave the area soon.

Such pessimism is daily fare, and for good reason.

The basket of California state taxes -- sales, income and gasoline -- rates among the highest in the U.S. Yet California roads and K-12 education rank near the bottom.

After years of drought, California has not built a single new reservoir. Instead, scarce fresh aqueduct water is still being diverted to sea. Thousands of rural central California homes, in Dust Bowl fashion, have been abandoned due to a sinking aquifer and dry wells.

One in three American welfare recipients resides in California. Almost a quarter of the state population lives below or near the poverty line. Yet the state's gas and electricity prices are among the nation's highest.

One in four state residents was not born in the U.S. Current state-funded pension programs are not sustainable.

California depends on a tiny elite class for about half of its income tax revenue. Yet many of these wealthy taxpayers are fleeing the 40-million-person state, angry over paying 12 percent of their income for lousy public services.

Public health costs have soared as one-third of California residents admitted to state hospitals for any causes suffer from diabetes, a sometimes-lethal disease often predicated on poor diet, lack of exercise and excessive weight.

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


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; US: California
KEYWORDS: apple; regulation; vdh; victordavishanson
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1 posted on 07/07/2016 5:45:22 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

‘One-third of Bay Area residents were polled as hoping to leave the area soon’

Lets hope they were thinking in-state and not out.


2 posted on 07/07/2016 5:48:40 AM PDT by 556x45
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To: Kaslin

People have threatened to leave CA for the last 40 years. Enough did leave to turn CO, OR and WA into liberal sewers, but still there are millions and millions in CA just sticking there taking the slow beating.


3 posted on 07/07/2016 5:49:31 AM PDT by lurk (T)
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To: Kaslin

I miss the weather and all the things to do.

But I fled due to these very problems. I really didn’t appreciate being punished for being successful. Then being punished more as I got more successful.

California is headed to be the Venezuela of the USA. They have Puerto Rico as a good example.

Coddle the takers and ostracize the makers. That works every time.


4 posted on 07/07/2016 5:51:54 AM PDT by freedumb2003 (Don't mistake my silence for ignorance, my calmness for acceptance, or my kindness for weakness)
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To: Kaslin

I dunno.

Venezuela sits on more oil than Saudi Arabia and has amazing farm land.

And they are starving in the dark.

And progressives/the left destroyed it.


5 posted on 07/07/2016 5:55:29 AM PDT by 2banana (My common ground with terrorists - they want to die for islam and we want to kill them)
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To: Kaslin

I was once “sentenced” to California. I married a great girl and we made our escape thirty years ago. It was a close call. Now her family, who always made fun of us Okies, have all fled, too; some of them here to Okieland.

Oldplayer


6 posted on 07/07/2016 5:55:46 AM PDT by oldplayer
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To: Kaslin

Not as long as California is run by DemocRats who invite in millions of illegal aliens and make Californians pay for them.


7 posted on 07/07/2016 5:56:04 AM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (Socialism is always just one or a thousand or a million more murders away from utopia.)
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To: freedumb2003

It is hard to distinguish between much of Los Angeles from Mexico City.


8 posted on 07/07/2016 5:56:49 AM PDT by TTFlyer
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To: Kaslin

Remember the rich Beach culture of the TV show Baywatch..?

If you throw a frisbee or a football on LA County beaches you are fined $1,000, not $100.

$1,000.


9 posted on 07/07/2016 5:57:39 AM PDT by gaijin
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To: oldplayer

Didn’t mean to hijack this thread. V.D.H. again writes a great article. We need more thinkers of his ilk.

Oldplayer


10 posted on 07/07/2016 5:57:41 AM PDT by oldplayer
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To: freedumb2003

You’re right: California will be the new Venezuela.

The situation could be turned around easily; for much less than is being spent on the “high speed rail” fiasco,

desalinization plants could be built, a couple of thorium reactors constructed, taxes lowered to attract business (California is now ranked LAST among the states in attractiveness to new business), etc.

But it won’t happen. Only liberal doctrines could destroy a place as beautiful as California. And guess what?


11 posted on 07/07/2016 5:58:26 AM PDT by CondorFlight (I)
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To: Kaslin

KY Jelly! Yep! That’s the cause of the financial troubles in Californificatia. If they would quit spending such large amounts of welfare money for KY jelly they could “smooth over” the roads. Excuse the pun.

I personally think that they should inject the jelly in bore-holes all along the state borders connecting to the main continent and hopefully the whole damn state will “slip” and “slide” into the “hole” in the ocean.


12 posted on 07/07/2016 5:59:10 AM PDT by DH (Once the tainted finger of government touches anything the rot begins)
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To: Kaslin

I lived in CA for 10 years. I am glad I got out. California is way overrated although this is from someone who grew up in the NE Corridor who enjoys bad weather. The only thing I miss about being on the Left Coast was the access to NV, AZ and Utah.


13 posted on 07/07/2016 6:02:29 AM PDT by C19fan
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To: Kaslin

California has become Brazil. A multiethnic/racial mess with a white overclass lording over them.


14 posted on 07/07/2016 6:03:27 AM PDT by C19fan
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To: Kaslin
The basket of California state taxes -- sales, income and gasoline -- rates among the highest in the U.S. Yet California roads and K-12 education rank near the bottom.

Where does all the money go?

After years of drought, California has not built a single new reservoir. Instead, scarce fresh aqueduct water is still being diverted to sea. Thousands of rural central California homes, in Dust Bowl fashion, have been abandoned due to a sinking aquifer and dry wells.

This is squarely on Governor Moonbeam and the state government.

One in three American welfare recipients resides in California. Almost a quarter of the state population lives below or near the poverty line. Yet the state's gas and electricity prices are among the nation's highest.

One of the richest most beautiful states in The Union and they - state government - are driving it into bankruptcy.

One in four state residents was not born in the U.S. Current state-funded pension programs are not sustainable.

When California comes to the feds and asks for a bailout, we should say NO, HELL NO!

15 posted on 07/07/2016 6:04:28 AM PDT by Rummyfan (Let us now try liberty.)
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To: gaijin
If you throw a frisbee or a football on LA County beaches you are fined $1,000, not $100. $1,000.

WHAT?!

16 posted on 07/07/2016 6:06:18 AM PDT by Rummyfan (Let us now try liberty.)
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To: gaijin

That was so outrageous I had to look it up... and you’re correct... The fines were increased in 2012 ,, public outcry demanded moderation in the enforcement but I don’t know if that occurred...
*********************
LOS ANGELES (CBS) — The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to do away with old rules that prohibited football games and Frisbee flying on county beaches.

Previous restrictions related to beach sports — which included a prohibition on playing football on the sand — were loosened last week to allow football, Frisbee, sailboarding, kiteboarding and paddleboarding.

According to Santos Kreimann, director of the county Department of Beaches and Harbors, erroneous reports last week that anyone tossing a football or a Frisbee could be fined $1,000 incited public outcry.

“It went viral within minutes,” said Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky. He said his office was inundated with complaints from as far away as London.

Though the board already approved the updated policies, Supervisors Don Knabe and Michael Antonovich wanted Kreimann at today’s meeting to publicly clarify the rules,

Knabe went one step further, asking staffers to rewrite the ordinance to clearly state that football, Frisbee and similar sports are OK, unless the safety of other beachgoers is in danger or a lifeguard demands the activity stop.

“While I appreciate the clarification, I’m concerned that misunderstandings will continue,” Knabe said. “Given the fact that no tickets have been issued in 40 years … allowing such activity should be the rule rather than the exception.”

Knabe said he discussed the changes with lifeguards and they agreed that an updated ordinance was in order.

It was unclear how long it would take for county lawyers to make the changes, which would then be codified by a vote of the board.

Today’s vote in support of the rule change was unanimous.


17 posted on 07/07/2016 6:07:57 AM PDT by oscar_diggs (First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.)
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To: C19fan
When my daughter was a teenager she always wanted to go to CA.

I don't even want to visit, all those brush fires, landslides and earthquakes are enough for me to not want to go, Besides I couldn't live with those morons

18 posted on 07/07/2016 6:09:38 AM PDT by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him. He got them and now we have to pay the consequences)
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To: Rummyfan

Leftism run amok. I was born in CA and lived there for more than 40 years. I’ve been gone for a while. I looked it up.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2012/02/09/los-angeles-oks-1000-fine-for-throwing-frisbees-footballs-at-the-beach/

My home has gone insane(er).


19 posted on 07/07/2016 6:09:41 AM PDT by Riley (The Fourth Estate is the Fifth Column.)
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To: oscar_diggs

Thanks for the update, your info is more current than mine.


20 posted on 07/07/2016 6:10:49 AM PDT by Riley (The Fourth Estate is the Fifth Column.)
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