California, Here We Come!
PALM SPRINGS, Calif.—In just a few weeks time, California hits the wall.
And Americans should take a good, long look at the fiscal and social wreck of the Golden Land, because California is at a place to which all of America is heading.
In May, when five fund-raising proposals were put on the ballot, Gov. Schwarzenegger pleaded with the overtaxed Californians not to make their state "the poster child for dysfunction."
As The Economist writes, "On May 18th, they did exactly that."
Arnold went to the White House for U.S. loan guarantees for new state bonds. But with the president's approval rating wilting because of a belief he is spending too much, the Obama-ites slammed the door.
In Sacramento, a Republican blocking force is resisting any new tax revenue. And with the state under a constitutional mandate to balance its budget, yet facing a $24 billion deficit this July, a chainsaw is about to be taken to state government.
Some 38,000 of 168,000 state prisoners may be released. As Barack Obama is pushing universal health insurance, California will cut Medi-Cal for the poor. Education will be slashed, resulting in a shortened school year, thousands of laid-off teachers, school closings and an end to summer programs in a system that has plummeted from the nation's best to one of its worst, as measured by dropout rates and academic achievement.
The 10 campuses of the University of California face cuts that may result in 50,000 fewer students and 5,000 fewer teachers.
What makes her fiscal crisis relevant to us all is not only that California is our most populous state, with one in eight Americans living there, but California has a gross domestic product larger than Canada's.
Moreover, the demography of California today is the demography of America tomorrow, just as the social and fiscal policies of California in the last decade mirror those of the U.S. government today.
One-third of all U.S. wage-earners today have been amnestied from paying U.S. income taxes, as the top 1 percent haul fully 40 percent of that huge load. So, too, in California, the well-to-do and the wealthy are hammered, which is why many have quietly closed their businesses, packed and gone back over the mountains whence their fathers came.
Under George W. Bush and Obama, the U.S. government has undertaken huge new responsibilities: No Child Left Behind, Medicare prescription drug benefits, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the takeovers of banks and auto companies, bailouts without end and national health insurance.
California, too, spent lavishly in the fat years and issued bonds when state revenues did not cover the costs, bringing its once-sterling credit rating down to the nation's lowest. So, too, U.S. Treasury bonds, T-bills and the American dollar are now increasingly suspect.
Demographically, California is where America will be in 2040.
White folks, who are leaving California as they did in the millions in the 1990's, are below half the population. Hispanics, their numbers surging due to legal and illegal immigration, are well over a third of the population. The African-American share of California's population is also falling, as the Asian share is rising, again from immigration.
Los Angeles, which is what most large American cities will look like, is the most diverse city on earth. Has diversity been a strength?
In the prisons and jails, and among the scores of thousands in street gangs and the underclass, a black-brown civil war is underway.
In October 2006, the Financial Times reported the findings of the famed author of Bowling Alone on what diversity has wrought:
"A bleak picture of the corrosive effects of ethnic diversity has been revealed in research by Harvard University's Robert Putnam, one of the world's most influential political scientists. His research shows that the more diverse a community is, the less likely its inhabitants are to trust anyone—from their next-door neighbor to the mayor."
"In the presence of diversity, we hunker down," said Putnam. "We act like turtles. The effect of diversity is worse than had been imagined. And it's not just that we don't trust people who are not like us. In diverse communities, we don't trust people who do look like us."
"Professor Putnam," said the Financial Times, "found trust was lowest in Los Angeles, 'the most diverse human habitation in human history.'"
Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan carried California nine times. But the state is now a fiefdom of liberalism. John McCain's share of the vote was smaller than Barry Goldwater's. California today believes in Big Government, open borders, diversity, multiculturalism and the politics of compassion. But what liberalism has wrought in California, its native-born are fleeing.
Still, where California is at, America is headed.
Californians who are running away from the communities and towns in which they were raised have Arizona, Idaho, Colorado, Utah and Nevada to head to. But when all of America arrives at where California is at today, where do the Americans run to?
COPYRIGHT 2009 CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.
Entries(RSS)
America? What America? The U.S. of A. has been history for decades now. Does anyone really believe it will return? You would need a critical mass of citizenry who knew what that was, and wanted it, for a return. Does anyone reading this think we have that?
It will last till 2040? Astonishing!
A few years back, Scientific American ran a whole issue on the world’s problems. Many “experts”, from diverse fields, reported from their field of expertise (economy, population, environment, natural resources, etc.) Each saw our problems converging into disaster around the same time PB has given. Hard to believe it will last that long.
#1 Jeff "You would need a critical mass of citizenry who knew (had a memory) what was,(took their intelligence for granted) and wanted it,(would exercise their will against the enemy will) for a return.(Or a maintaince of what their ancestors built and the enemy destroyed) Does anyone reading this think we have that?"
Hell No !!! (and that's not cussing, just explaining current geography)
"But when all of America arrives at where California is at today, where do the Americans run to?"
Europe.The takeover of Chrysler by FIAT is an adumbration of our nation's future.We will simply have to "outsource" our government, along with our incompetent business class.Maybe poor ol' dyslexic Frank Ricci can apply for a job at Mirafiori;well out of reach of Sonia Sotomayor.Its a more appealing tactic than Scott Richert's vegetable garden.
Sempronius,
Having an agrarian bent towards the traditional crafts, I post a little paragraph of Wendell Berry in defense of Scott's vegetable garden and Robert Louis Stevenson's, Child's Garden of Verses. Enjoy.
"How are they to protect themselves? There seems, really, to be only one way, and that is to develop and put into practice the idea of a local economy—something that growing numbers of people are now doing. For several good reasons, they are beginning with the idea of a local food economy. People are trying to find ways to shorten the distance between producers and consumers, to make the connections between the two more direct, and to make this local economic activity a benefit to the local community. They are trying to learn to use the consumer economies of local towns and cities to preserve the livelihoods of local farm families and farm communities. They want to use the local economy to give consumers an influence over the kind and quality of their food, and to preserve land and enhance the local landscapes. They want to give everybody in the local community a direct, long-term interest in the prosperity, health, and beauty of their homeland. This is the only way presently available to make the total economy less total. It was once, I believe, the only way to make a national or a colonial economy less total. But now the necessity is greater."
The friendly cow all red and white,
I love with all my heart:
She gives me cream with all her might,
To eat with apple-tart.
She wanders lowing here and there,
And yet she cannot stray,
All in the pleasant open air,
The pleasant light of day;
And blown by all the winds that pass
And wet with all the showers,
She walks among the meadow grass
And eats the meadow flowers.
2040? America is only two or three years away from a economic and energy train wreak.
Very beautiful.Thank you very much Robert.I'm no stranger to vegetable gardens.I have fond memories as a boy raiding my grandmother's garden for string beens,eaten raw,outer casing and all,was a real treat.And the wonderful minestra,or vegetable soup,made from fresh produce,was also a real treat.I've got nothing against vegetables.
But we're not going to solve our problems growing tomatoes or turnips.And if I recall correctly Richert was all for bailing out the Big Three(Stooges?).So apparently,horticulture isnt the only way out,even for Mr. Richert.
Sempronius
"And if I recall correctly Richert was all for bailing out the Big Three(Stooges?).So apparently,horticulture isnt the only way out,even for Mr. Richert." Touche'!! And please accept my high regards for your participation on this virtual site of civility.
You forgot to mention the primary destroyer of California culture; the satanic vultures who run Hollywood. With only rare exceptions that whole religious sect has gone out of its way to run America in general, and Dixie in particular, through the mud. Sadly there will be nobody to punish them for their crimes against humanity.
I was born and raised in Los Angeles when it seemed to be a promising place to find a niche. However, by 1980 I left the state for various negative reasons. From the present perspective, I think I made a good call. If conditions deteriorate in my present location to where shall I run? Well, I do know, but I will not reveal it, because I do not want guys like Buchanan broadcasting it. I do not want the pestilence following me.
My entire immediate family (save me) were born and raised in California. We have since totally renounced that state and everything it stands for. Never again will we waste our time with it and its 'values'.
I don't live in California any more. I left San Diego in 1976 and moved to Virginia. But socialized riff-raff from Massachusetts have invaded so that they can ruin Dixie just like they ruined New England. Georgia holds some promise if you stay away from Atlanta, but the Aztecs also find it attractive.
I can turn off my English, switch to my native French, and live quite nicely in Quebec where the women are pretty, freckled blonds and redheads with no visible tattoos. In 200 miles of driving from Ottawa to Maniwaki, I never saw a police cruiser, so evidently the Quebecois are well behaved despite their lack of diversity. If they can keep out the Mahgrebais Ratons and the Haitians, then they should be in pretty good shape -- unlike Ontario or even France.
In general, Pat is right. But he gets a couple of things wrong.
For one, there is no "constitutional mandate" to balance California's budget, only for the governor to submit one. Naturally, the governors fudge the numbers. And the Legislature has no obligation to balance the budget. If there were such a requirement, there would be no problem today. Instead, the state has had 9 straight budgets "balanced" only with borrowing and accounting gimmicks.
Second, if Arnold had kept his 2003 election promise to solve the budget crisis by "cutting up the credit cards," there would be no crisis today. Instead, he tricked dumb voters into passing $15 billion in borrowing in 2004, then blew all the money on even higher spending.
The housing bubble papered over his incompetence until it burst last year. Now, there is no solution but cutting the waste. It will happen.
The New York bond markets already are discounting the state's credit rating, driving up the cost of borrowing. But the same thing happened to Bill Clinton, you may remember, in 1994, so he had to restrain spending and taxing. (This is recounted in Bob Woodward's book, "Agenda.")
For America, the reality is that a train is coming at us down the pike, and it's called China, and it's not stopping. The Bush-Obama expensive wars, inflation, deficit spending, and socialism are going to have to end, one way or another.
In that, California also is a harbinger.
A solution is possible, but it requires serious adult decisions. But in an infantilized culture where 55-year-old men try to dress like teens and are as self-absorbed, as evidenced by all the narrow-focused special interest groups, where do we find the adults?
Entienne @ 12
It is apparent from your description that you are a prisoner of the AC-Fairfax combine. The Commonwealth is quite large. A non-native myself, I find a short drive south reveals a Virginia still populated by sane humanity --- proud claimants of Washington, Jefferson, and Robert E. Lee --- though I am afraid your Aztecs are quite ubiquitous.
I'm 2 counties away from Fairfax. In 1994 Battle flags were flying proudly, but today, not so much. Call my area suburban Fredericksburg. The best place to live for peace and harmony is in the Shenandoah Valley -- where the jobs aren't.
Indeed. The bumper stickers and occasional Ford-mounted flagpole today certainly pass no muster as 'proudly waving'.
Best place to go in the Western Hemisphere they say is Uruguay. Exchange rate is decent(for now), no hurricanes, earthquakes, etc. 70's year round also. It is either that or somehere in C or E Europe for me. Thank God I am single and little debt.
"But when all of America arrives at where California is at today, where do the Americans run to?"
Hmmmmmm....Canada?
"I can turn off my English, switch to my native French, and live quite nicely in Quebec where the women are pretty, freckled blonds and redheads with no visible tattoos."
Good idea, M. Gervais. I've been thinking lately of returning to where my Granpere DuTemple was born. I still have cousins there, I suppose, among the Secaudes and DuTemples. The women are indeed lovely. As a toddler,my daughter was entranced by the sound of French being spoken in the French movies I watched in place of American TV when I had broken the TV habit shortly before she was born.
Actually the unemployment rate in the Shenandoah Valley is not bad. Currently the Harrisonburg area is about 5%. There are jobs here. We are not immune from drugs and gangs and such though. However, it is much better than Northern Virginia. We do have as you say, Aztecs. Mostly in the poultry plants. The economy is not as dependent on poultry as it once was and that helps.