Every time I go to California it starts to remind me of Buffalo with sunshine: imagine the northeast rust belt layered over an (illegal immigrant) indentured servant economy.
…While the meltdown has certainly been accelerated by the recession of the past two years, its causes involve two decades of poor judgment, reckless mismanagement, and irresponsibility.
It’s bad:
California's percentage of adults without at least a high-school education is the second-highest in the nation … The Commonwealth Fund has ranked the quality of California's health care lowest of the 50 states. The state has the highest rate of criminal recidivism … The state is seriously discussing mandatory water rationing, and has in recent years experienced severe disruptions of its electricity supply ... a recent survey of corporate CEOs ranked California the worst state in the country in which to do business. It is losing native-born citizens faster than any other state.
So, let’s double down:
There is little in President Obama's legislative agenda that hasn't already been tried in California. Need a model of runaway spending with no regard for growing debt? Look to California, whose bonds currently hover just above junk status. Want to insist on restrictive carbon-emission controls? Note the example of California's 2006 greenhouse-gas law, which is expected to reduce the state's economic output by 10% and destroy 1.1 million jobs. Want to put the government in charge of health care? Look at California's repeated legislative pushes for a single-payer system of health-insurance coverage, each of which ended in failure.
Read the whole thing. Via Newmark's Door.
