What is wrong with California?

[LA Ute]

Everyone here knows how I feel about my insane state. But I am just wondering: why are so many people who don't live here so interested in how bad things are here? Just learn from us and be sure you don't elect crazy people to office, or build an entitlement culture, in your state.

[Solon]

Victor Davis Hanson: "There Is No California"

How I wish I could say I disagree with him. I get around the state quite a bit, and everything he says here rings true to me.

Victor Hanson is a Classicist. He's an interesting combination of conservative (writes for National Review) and liberal (lifelong farmer democrat).

WRT California, he wrote a really interesting book awhile back called Mexifornia, where he shows a pretty nice balance to both sides of the immigration debate, as well as his personal experiences as both a farmer and an educator.

http://books.google.com/books/about/...d=uh2PvpJ0pB4C

[Danimal]

Everyone here knows how I feel about my insane state. But I am just wondering: why are so many people who don't live here so interested in how bad things are here? Just learn from us and be sure you don't elect crazy people to office, or build an entitlement culture, in your state.

You can leave California but you can't leave California alone.

[LA Ute]

Victor Hanson is a Classicist. He's an interesting combination of conservative (writes for National Review) and liberal (lifelong farmer democrat).

WRT California, he wrote a really interesting book awhile back called Mexifornia, where he shows a pretty nice balance to both sides of the immigration debate, as well as his personal experiences as both a farmer and an educator.

http://books.google.com/books/about/...d=uh2PvpJ0pB4C

Mexifornia is a fine treatment of the subject. My FIL ( who lives in Utah but has a morbid fascination with California problems) sent it to me a few years ago.

[Solon]

Mexifornia is a fine treatment of the subject. My FIL ( who lives in Utah but has a morbid fascination with California problems) sent it to me a few years ago.

Too bad you already have it. I would have sponsored your copy.

I really like Hanson's scholarship. His time as a farmer gives him a leg up on the stuffy library-only crowd.

[il Padrino Ute]

Everyone here knows how I feel about my insane state. But I am just wondering: why are so many people who don't live here so interested in how bad things are here? Just learn from us and be sure you don't elect crazy people to office, or build an entitlement culture, in your state.

Goes California, so goes the nation.

[Uncle Ted]

Everyone here knows how I feel about my insane state. But I am just wondering: why are so many people who don't live here so interested in how bad things are here? Just learn from us and be sure you don't elect crazy people to office, or build an entitlement culture, in your state.

I think only there are only crazy people left. Everyone else has moved.

BTW, maybe it was a good thing that Meg Whitman didn't become governor given her recent performance at HP. Like Obama, she blames it on the previous management...

Whitman maintained that she inherited a bloated, poorly managed company that hasn’t been innovating quickly enough in any of its divisions, which span from PCs and printers to software and data storage.

Goes California, so goes the nation.

And two of my biggest clients.

[Pheidippides]

Everyone here knows how I feel about my insane state. But I am just wondering: why are so many people who don't live here so interested in how bad things are here? Just learn from us and be sure you don't elect crazy people to office, or build an entitlement culture, in your state.

Because you are our version of Greece. And we are your version of Germany.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Because you are our version of Greece. And we are your version of Germany.

[creekster]

I wouldn't get too excited. If this analogy is right your hometown is maybe Belgium.

[LA Ute]

Because you are our version of Greece. And we are your version of Germany.

Well, there is a fascistic element in Texas....

Anyway, it is not difficult to figure out what is wrong with California. What is difficult is understanding everyone's schadenfreude over the problems. 1 of every 10 Americans lives here. There are lots of reasons to hope we get it figured out pretty soon (about 30 million of them).

[Jeff Lebowski]

My best friend from college announced his retirement last week. He has worked for a city in Northern California his entire career. He is in his early 50's and will retire with a pension that covers about 90% of his pre-retirement income. He is going to work a little part-time, but mainly he will just enjoy life keep mamma happy from here on out. Now his city (and the California taxpayers) will pay his pension at just about the same rate as his salary from last week and all of the salary of his replacement. I am happy for him, but that is just insane from a fiscal point of view.

[Pheidippides]

Well, there is a fascistic element in Texas....

Anyway, it is not difficult to figure out what is wrong with California. What is difficult is understanding everyone's schadenfreude over the problems. 1 of every 10 Americans lives here. There are lots of reasons to hope we get it figured out pretty soon (about 30 million of them).

I have little schadefreude over the problems because I will probably have to pay for them in one way or another, but I think it's because Californians have a reputation for being a bunch of arrogant and unintelligent posers. I am tainted in that I lived in NYC, though, and California is generally viewed with an amplified level of the disdain that New Yorkers have for everybody.

I am obligated at this point to caveat the above with the statement that (again) I don't have this viewpoint necessarily, and even if I did it would exempt all the fine upstanding board members from California. My personal view is that California has a lot to offer but it's screwed up right now and it's going to take the better part of a decade to fix. And it's not like there haven't been warning signs.

[falafel]

My best friend from college announced his retirement last week. He has worked for a city in Northern California his entire career. He is in his early 50's and will retire with a pension that covers about 90% of his pre-retirement income. He is going to work a little part-time, but mainly he will just enjoy life keep mamma happy from here on out. Now his city (and the California taxpayers) will pay his pension at just about the same rate as his salary from last week and all of the salary of his replacement. I am happy for him, but that is just insane from a fiscal point of view.

Sounds a little scary. What if the city goes bankrupt and they wipe out the pension?

[LA Ute]

I have little schadefreude over the problems because I will probably have to pay for them in one way or another, but I think it's because Californians have a reputation for being a bunch of arrogant and unintelligent posers. I am tainted in that I lived in NYC, though, and California is generally viewed with an amplified level of the disdain that New Yorkers have for everybody.

I am obligated at this point to caveat the above with the statement that (again) I don't have this viewpoint necessarily, and even if I did it would exempt all the fine upstanding board members from California. My personal view is that California has a lot to offer but it's screwed up right now and it's going to take the better part of a decade to fix. And it's not like there haven't been warning signs.

We have been ill-served by our political elites. Those are the folks you're talking about.