California made major news this month, surpassing Britain and reclaiming a valuable economic marker as the fifth largest economy in the world. Its post-recession growth is accelerating under President Trump’s administration and the state even turned in a modest surplus.
However, the state remains one of the most unequal in the nation — one that has both billions of dollars in Silicon Valley and rampant homelessness. The Golden State’s efforts to eliminate poverty instead accentuates it, and its tax system inadvertently aids those who are already wealthy. With the middle class leaving in droves, California’s society represents a neo-feudal mix of robber barons and poor. It’s an unsustainable mixture.
California has a gross domestic product of more than $2.7 trillion. This represents about 13.9 percent of the national U.S. economy. The topline numbers are a bit misleading, as the state represents a similar 12.1 percent of the national population.
California represented the world’s fifth largest economy before the recession, falling to 10th largest in 2012 while growing at an anemic 0.1 percent per year. The state has been fortunate to be the center of the tech and internet sectors, which represent almost 10 percent of the total. Part of the growth was due to a rapidly expanding real estate sector, which heavily benefits wealthy residents. …
I fled Kalifornistan last year after living there for 55 years. The sad reality is that I and my wife could not maintain our standard of living in Kalifornistan and that even if by some miracle the Republicans were to win control of the governorship and the legislature, it would take decades to turn the state around. As I and many of the middle class flee I’ve come to the conclusion that what will remain are the liberal progressive socialists politicians, the rich that support them, the public employees, welfare recipients, criminals and illegal aliens. It will be interesting to see what happens when the state gets to that point.
^^^ It’s already there…
Jesse Jackson tried to get this straightened out without much success. Silicon valley just has to ask prospective employees to write a simple program in machine language. How many people without a degree in computer science could do this?