California's Economic Collision Course: Immigration and Water

Thomas Del Beccaro

You have heard it before: “As California goes, so goes the nation.” If that is the case, the national economy will be harmed for decades to come because of California’s misplaced priorities today. Indeed, by emphasizing high-speed rail over water and failing to deal with its debt crisis, California poses a long-term threat to our national economy and is on an economic collision course of increased immigration and lack of water.

California has more than 38 million residents. Despite net losses of millions of residents to other states, California continues to grow through immigration. Latinos now equal the number of non-Hispanic w****s in California. With projections that show California’s population reaching 45 to 50 million within 20 years, you would think job creation would be job one for Jerry Brown.

Sadly, that is not the case today. Despite a much-heralded recovery in the media and by Governor Jerry Brown, California still has one of the nation’s highest unemployment rates. Also, more than 30% of the nation’s welfare recipients are Californians – even though California has just 12% of the nation’s population. It is not surprising, therefore, that California is ranked number one in poverty.

The cause for those bad statistics is bad government policy. California is the most regulated, highest-taxed, most in-debt state in America. According to government data, from the municipal to the state level, California governments have more than $1.1 trillion in debt – much of that tied to pensions.

Beyond debt, Governor Brown recently signed a huge tax increase featuring a top rate of 13.3%. Overall, California taxes are 42% higher than Texas. California also has the most extreme/job-threatening g****l w*****g law in the world, which includes a 15-cent gas tax increase slated to take effect in 2015 – on top of the already record gas prices.
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High debt, high taxes, high regulations and high poverty are not exactly the foundation on which to add 7 to 12 million people. California’s private sector needs an economic recovery far more robust and broad-based to absorb those new people. Unfortunately, California continues to make bad decisions with long-term implications.

Perhaps worst among them is Brown’s decision to make high-speed rail a higher priority than water. Over the last 7,000 years, California has endured droughts that have lasted up to 20 years, according to Scott Stine, a professor of geography and environmental studies at Cal State East Bay. California is in year three of its current drought, which is projected to result in economic losses of $2.2 billion to California agriculture in 2014 alone according to a UC Davis study – not to mention the loss of over 17,000 jobs.

To combat the lack of water brought on by drought and environmental policies that favor fish over people, California farmers are behind a drilling boom – for groundwater. The problem is that, at current rates of consumption, some believe California could run nearly dry of groundwater within two decades.

Unlike his father Edmund G. Brown, Sr., who focused on water, Jerry Brown would rather see $68 billion spent on high-speed rail – a project for which there is no significant consumer demand and, like most every rail system, will likely require endless public subsidies and therefore add to the debt crisis. Brown recently k**led a proposed water bond of $11.4 billion because he said it would “break the bank.” Apparently $68 billion won’t break the bank, but $11.4 billion would.

Instead, after California Republicans fought for a greater emphasis on water storage, Brown agreed to a bond that spends $2.5 billion on water storage – a figure woefully short of what is needed. Obviously, Brown thinks high-speed rail is 27 times more important than water storage.

Neither that water bond nor any other state level effort currently underway will sufficiently add to the amount of available water now or in the future. Water equals jobs, however, and without a far-reaching effort such as building 60 desalination plants at the same cost as the high-speed rail project – plants that won’t need future subsidies, the California economy is on an economic collision course with immigration.

California’s debt crisis will hobble its economy as well. Even Chicago’s Rahm Emanuel was honest enough to say that pension debts were deterring businesses from locating in Illinois. In California, despite what some say could be more than half a trillion dollars of public employment retirement-related debt, there is literally no concerted plan for addressing the issue – tinkering yes, real reform no.

Unless California addresses its long-term water needs and debt crisis, the already overburdened private sector will not be able to handle the coming population influx. Instead, California’s welfare rolls will swell, adding to its debt crisis.

In 2009, California sent out IOUs to creditors when hard pressed for cash and borrowed billions from the federal government. A decade from now it could be much worse. Rather than leading the national economy, California could well be holding down America’s economic growth.

California Is Broke: 19 Reasons It May Be Time For Everyone To Leave The State For Good

Back in the 1960s and 1970s, there was a seemingly endless parade of pop songs about how great life was in California, and millions of young Americans dreamed of moving to the land of sandy beaches and golden sunshine.

But now all of that has changed. Today, millions of Californians are dreaming about leaving the state for good. The t***h is that California is broke. The economy of the state is in shambles.
Click here to see the reasons to leave.

The official unemployment rate has been sitting above 12 percent for an extended period of time, and poverty is everywhere. For many Californians today, there are very few reasons to stay in the state but a whole lot of reasons to leave: falling housing prices, rising crime, budget cuts, rampant i*****l i*********n, horrific traffic, some of the most brutal tax rates in the nation, increasing gang violence and the ever present threat of wildfires, mudslides and natural disasters.

The t***h is that it is easy to understand why there are now more Americans moving out of California each year than there are Americans moving into the state. California has become a complete and total disaster zone in more ways than one, and an increasing number of Californians are deciding that enough is enough and they are getting out for good.

Sadly, the state of California is facing such a wide array of social, economic, and political problems that it is hard to even document them all. It is really one huge gigantic mess at this point.

Just consider the following facts about what life is like in the state of California today....

Unemployment in California was 12.4% in September - one of the highest in the nation.

Data Source: Reuters
The Unemployed in California is equivalent to the populations of Nevada, New Hampshire and Vermont

Source: The Economic Collapse
Not even state government jobs are safe in California these days. Last month, government agencies in California slashed a total of 37,300 jobs.

Data Source: The Los Angeles Times
California has the third highest state income tax in the nation: a 9.55% tax bracket at $47,055 and a 10.55% bracket at $1,000,000.

Data Source: The Tax Foundation
California has the highest state sales tax rate in the nation by far at 8.25%. Indiana has the next highest at 7%.

Source: The Tax Foundation
Residents of California pay the highest gasoline taxes (over 67 cents per gallon) in the U.S.

Data Source: The API
Even with all of the taxes, the budget deficit for the California state government for the current year is approximately 19 billion dollars.

Data Source: The Wall Street Journal
California's unfunded pension liability is estimated to be somewhere between $120 billion and $500 billion.

Data Source: The Wall Street Journal
Twenty percent of the residents of Los Angeles County are now receiving public aid.

Data Source: The Los Angeles Times
Budget cuts are even jeopardizing public safety

For example, Oakland, California Police Chief Anthony Batts says that due to severe budget cuts there are a number of crimes that his department will simply not be able to respond to any longer. The crimes that the Oakland police will no longer be responding to include grand theft, burglary, car wrecks, identity theft and vandalism.

Things have gotten so bad in Stockton, California that the police union put up a billboard with the following message: "Welcome to the 2nd most dangerous city in California. Stop laying off cops."

Data Source: The Economic Collapse, CBS 13
1 in 4 Californians under the age of 65 had absolutely no health insurance last year.

Data Source: The Los Angeles Times
California's poverty rate soared to 15.3 percent in 2009, which was the highest in 11 years.

Data Source: The Los Angeles Times
California's overstretched health care system is also on the verge of collapse.

Dozens of California hospitals and emergency rooms have shut down over the last decade because they could not afford to stay open after being endlessly swamped by i*****l i*******ts and poor Californians who were simply not able to pay for the services they were receiving.

As a result, the remainder of the health care system in the state of California is now beyond overloaded. This had led to brutally long waits, diverted ambulances and even unnecessary patient deaths.

Data Source: The Los Angeles Times
California home builders began construction on 1,811 homes during the month of August, which was down 77% from August 2006.

Data Source: The Los Angeles Times
Earlier this year, in Sacramento, California there was one closed business for every six that were still open.

Data Source: The Sacramento Bee
The "lawsuit climate" in California is ranked number 46 out of all 50 states.

Data Source: Institute for Legal Reform
Residents of California pay some of the highest electricity prices in the entire nation.

Data Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration
Over 20 percent of California homeowners are now underwater on their mortgages.

And who can forget the Sacramento tent cities (2009)

Blade_Runner, when you quote antiquated and outdated statistics as though they are current, it is very easy for you to lie -- which is what, in effect, you are doing. One of the quotes you provided let the cat out of the bag that these comments were way outdated. We are doing better and better every day, and I would say our unemployment rate has dropped enormously. You better hope we continue to do better and better, too, because we supply half the agricultural food this nation consumes.

NOTE for the rest of you reading this. Blade_Runner habitually posts antiquated and irrelevant quotes to try to prove his points. I have in the past caught him posting quotes that even proved the opposite of what he was trying to prove. He claims to understand science, but dowe not understand the scientific method. Be wary of him. He does not tell the t***h.

Republicans brought Democrats kicking and screaming to the table to give b***k A******ns civil rights. Period. King was a Republican. One of the things the NRA did was to insure b****s were armed so that they could protect themselves from the damn Democrats in the KKK. You believe all the propaganda fed you like it was mother's milk. But the t***h is not in you, and yet it's not entirely your fault because you are one of millions of people easily deceived. You weren't raised to have traditional standards and values, the sort that built America.

And you, like your budies in the G****l W*****g crowd, do not use facts. You use opinions and assume that they are equivalent.

Well, Sir, you were wrong yesterday, you are wrong today and you will be wrong tomorrow.

For example, check where the "agricultural food" comes from. Note that most of it is processed in China or Mexico. Check the employment stats and note that the reason they seem to be better is due to the way they are computed, not due to more people finding work. If industry is depressed, there cannot be more people employed, no matter what your lying leaders tell you. Further proof is in the Obamacare boondoggle and the upcoming Obamatrade scandal, both of which have the potential to put the final nail in the coffin of the once mighty USA.

I am 100 percent right. 100 percent. I count myself in the sane part of the population and in my conversations and dealings with people I am positive that most people think the same way. Many people are pushed by the left to think that their opinions don't count unless they are in agreement with the PC crowd, and do not speak up against what they see as insanity but when push comes to shove, they will stand with me, not with you. Don't fool yourself that they will take your side when it will be plain to see that your side is suicide.

Did you complain about W. Bush, whose statistics of these things and whose performance was even worse, and who departed from office leaving this nation in shambles ?Are you aware that under his presidency, 4,475 people died in Iraq and here in the USA ? That there were 32,331 wounded ? That his war cost 1.7 trillion, and the cost is still accumulating and rising ? Bet you didn't complain about those facts, did ya ? W. Bush was probably the worst president this country has had, though how one judges degrees of badness is certainly difficult to agree upon.