The Problem with California

The Problem with California

Ask not what your State can do for you, but what you can do for your state!

California is the edge of Western civilization and one of the worlds largest economies, 5th or 6th in the world. It is thus one of the wealthiest states (not per capita), but in terms of revenue. It is the center of three of the USA’s major and most promising fields of enterprise, movie making (USA’s greatest export products), Silicon Valley, and Stem cell research. California is also home to the world best public higher education system. Many of the worlds top research universities call the Golden State home.

California is the land of Hollywood dreams that come true. California is the American Dream, the land of innovation, the center of the tech, bio tech, and communication, image/media driven future of the global economy. It is bursting with potential and ideas, arguably generating more innovations these days than any other state by a sizable margin.

With so much going for it, and so much money coming in, where is it all going? Why all the problems…

We’ll get to that.

California has some of the most conservative and most extreme liberal people in the nation. It is a huge state that is hard to bring together. It is also one of the most racially diverse states, a true blending of all the worlds colors, creeds, religions and ideals. It has the largest minority population (57% in 2005) of any state.

California is interesting in that the bulk of the people live in the south, but the center of government is in the north. The people that run the government (minus Arnold) are mostly people who have never worked in or been a product of it’s business sectors (long enough to show it at least). If they were they would see that California has become extremely business unfriendly. This means that it is no longer able to support the entitlement programs in loves so much.

California’s are very empathetic people, they have so much, and they see so much money floating around that they want to help everyone. They want to house, educate, feed, provide medical care, childcare, and even drivers licenses to everyone who asks for it. No questions asked, nothing required in return. This is not a bad thing, per say... What’s bad is what happens when that helping hand cannot afford to give because it has nothing for itself. What is happening is that because they state was so generous, people took advantage (Octo-mom, illegal immigrants, unions, Medi-Cal fraudsters, ect.) and now those that are actually paying taxes are seeing what they have paid into disappear, or not be there for them. A sick mother cannot care for her kids as the saying goes.

So how can the state heal itself?

The simple version is this:
1) In the short term, clean house, cut spending and eliminate waste
2) Follow the laws it has on the books, and the will of the people

California needs to deal with it’s problems. It cannot afford to turn a blind eye to it’s woes. Whether they are financial, immigrant, business, climate, political, economic, educational…

The painful truth that no one in California politics wants to say (it’s pretty much political suicide in this state) is that California has a MAJOR illegal immigration problem.

Illegal immigration is a major Problem!

I said it. Go ahead and hate me. Call me names. That won’t help anything.

Truth creates money.

In Wilson’s administration, a study prepared by Philip J. Romero for the Governor’s office found that illegal immigrants and their U.S.-born children received about $3.6 billion more in state services than they paid in taxes. The 1994 study was followed up in 1997 with the Jordan Commission’s study of California conducted by the National Research Council. In looking at California’s budget, the study found that there was “a net fiscal transfer to the average immigrant-headed household of $3,463” and that the “net fiscal burden on native households in California is families from Latin America.”

In 2007, Romero updated his earlier work and estimated that illegal aliens in California now receive somewhere between $9.6 and $38.2 billion more in state services than they pay in state taxes.
(“COST OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION EQUALS COST OF CALIFORNIA BUDGET DEFICIT, By Diana Hull, Ph.D., April 7, 2008 @ http://www.capsweb.org/)

"California is melting down with an unemployment rate of 9.3 percent, 257,400
jobs lost in 2008, median home values plummeting 50% since spring of 2007, and
the lowest S&P bond rating of all fifty states," said Dan Stein, President of
FAIR. "While Governor Schwarzenegger is proposing draconian cuts in spending,
ordering furloughs for state employees, and delaying expected taxpayer
refunds, he continues to ignore the budget-busting cost of illegal
immigration. With the highest concentration of illegal aliens of any state -
nearly one in eight residents is illegal - it's no wonder California is in the
mess it is." (FAIR, California Budget Meltdown Would be Lessened by Combating Increases in Illegal Immigration, Feb 6, 2009)

California will not be able to financially recover until it addresses the illegal immigration problem. California is sick with Lung Cancer and illegal immigration is it’s cigarettes. There will be no healing until the cigarettes are dealt with.
If California cannot afford to pay for it’s legal citizens and their state parks, libraries, hospitals, social services, or workers, then it certainly cannot afford to pay for illegal citizens. This is a given and must be corrected immediately.

It seems harsh, and some say it’s not fair, but what is not fair is bankrupting the state of California to support/house/treat/support people who broke (and show no respect for) state and federal laws and should not be here. What kind of message does that send to those who follow the laws? Once we fix the illegal problem we can have a normal functioning immigration and temp worker system.

Prop 187 must be re-enacted.

The state cannot afford to educate, heal, and support every person that enters its boarders, it’s actually quite simple. It is a recipe for collapse and collapse hurts everyone. The collapse of California, the back bone of the US economy is not good. As goes California, so goes the USA.

California (politician) needs to understand that it must obey the will of the people. To ignore the will of the people is what is called: A Failed State.

Please don’t let California fail.