California – Perfect Example of What Not to Be as a State

Posted by Jack

My wife and I live in the San Francisco Bay Area.  But like 46% of Bay area residents in a June 2018 Bay Area Council poll, we are considering leaving California.   Arizona looks like our destination although many friends have already moved to Texas, Nevada, Idaho, and Tennessee.

Why?  Simple.  California’s Progressive culture and government has turned the state into a filthy, debt- ridden, congested third world country with high taxes, high crime, and the highest housing costs in the country.

Our little piece of bliss is a third world country, made up of a large, wealthy population (Hollywood and Silicon Valley tech giants), an enormous poor population, and a declining middle class that elected officials only view as a large, distributed human ATM machine from which they withdraw money for “sanctuary cities” (actually sanctuary everything, cities, universities, the State, etc.), social justice programs, suing the Trump administration, and “free” everything for everyone.

(The federal government has informed California this year, for example, that as it [California] tries to implement free health care for everyone, it illegally enrolled 400,000 people on Medicaid at a cost of $1 billion plus per year).  According to the Census Bureau, California has the highest poverty rate in the country at 19%.  And, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, California has 12% of the country’s population and 43% of its TANF (welfare).  California spends $103 billion per year on welfare, more than the next two states combined (New York at $61.4 billion and Texas at $35.4 billion).

California has the one of the highest GINI, or inequality, ratio in the country.  A GINI ratio measures the difference between the richest residents and its poorest residents. According to Chapman University’s Center for Demographics and Policy, the state’s inequality is worse than Mexico and equal to Guatemala and Honduras (ironically, where many of our new voters appear to be coming from).

San Francisco, proud to be what it thinks of itself as America’s most Progressive city, is a good surrogate for the state as a whole.  The city has:— hundreds of complaints weekly (more than 1600 in one recent week) about human feces (or “shit” to our progressive friends) on the street, in parks, and in other public places; residents in the city, therefore, implemented a “POOP” or “Human Waste” Map, that tells visitors and residents which neighborhoods to avoid because of the overwhelming amount of human waste on the streets and other public places.

As if feces and urine everywhere are not bad enough, the city government is, in effect, turning the city into one large, outdoor illegal drug market.  The city distributes more than 4.5 million hypodermic syringes and needles yearly to its growing horde of drug addicts; so many drug addicts clog the city’s commuter train (BART) stations.

But filth is not the city’s only issue.  the FBI recently ranked San Francisco as the city with the highest crime rate in the country.  For example, in 2017 the city’s residents were burdened with 32,000 car burglaries (residents put signs in their car windows begging people not to break their windows or steal anything from their cars).

The city of San Diego, adjacent to the Mexican border, is itself recovering from a Hepatitis A outbreak from human waste by washing its downtown streets nightly with bleach.

The State has the country’s highest income tax (and the highest capital gains tax in the WORLD), sales tax, gasoline tax, unemployment tax, and workers compensation tax.  And, lucky us, we have the only Cap and Trade tax in the country, a secret “tax” administered by a State of California Corporation formed in Delaware.

Under the heading of criminal justice reform, the State has recently reduced many crimes in the State from felonies to misdemeanor status and released thousands of inmates from prison early.  This August Governor Moonbeam (Jerry Brown) signed bail reform into law outlawing money bail.  Combined, these new laws have added to both the crime problem and the homelessness problem.

Speaking of homelessness, since government began focusing on solving the problem, the state’s homeless population has doubled; it is like a homeless manufacturing and marketing plan.  Five years ago, L.A.’s homeless population was 32,000; last year’s count was 57,000.

The average price of a home in California is 2.5 times higher than the price of homes in other states (Average price of a home in San Francisco and many surrounding suburbs is more than $1million).  This means owning a house is difficult, at best and the median homeowner property tax bill is 93% higher than the average for the other 49 states.

In the last election, 70 California cities raised their sales tax rates (primarily to pay for escalating pension costs for our failing pension systems).  In addition repealing last years new gas and vehicle registration taxes  in Proposition 6, will likely be defeated next week.

Reform Network ranks California as the second worst “Judicial Hellhole” in the Country.  CEO magazine has ranked California the worst state in the Country to do business in for the 14th straight year.

California’s public schools are among the worst in the country.  National tests place California students 44th (reading) and 46th (math) in the nation.

While private sector workers in the State (and Country) who retire this year with at least 30 years of full-time work will receive, on average, a Social Security pension of $15,800 ($38,000 maximum), State and most city workers in the CalPERS pension system will receive a pension of $70,000 (police and fire more than $100,000 at age 50).

Teachers in the State make, on average, $81,000 per year and retire at 60 with an average pension of $55,000 per year.  Yet both pension systems (CalPERS and CalSTRS) are only 2/3 funded with unfunded liabilities of close to $1 trillion.  Employer contributions (read taxpayer contributions) that are already unsustainably high are doubling over the next five years to try to keep the systems from bankruptcy.

TRIP, a Washington, D.C. nonprofit, reported this month that California is home to six of the 20 U.S. cities of 200,000 or more people with the highest percentage of their streets and roads whose pavement condition is rated in poor condition:  No. 1 San Francisco; No. 2 San Jose; No. 3 Los Angeles; No. 12 Sacramento; No. 13 Riverside; No. 16 Fresno.

According to the Federal government, California’s Cost of living is 41% higher than the national average.

Kiplinger has ranked California the 3rd worst state, behind New York and New Jersey, to retire in.  They clearly missed something because from where I live, we’re number one and as a result we are all moving.

Not to be all negative, the State and many cities in California have one BIG accomplishment for 2018:  they have banned plastic straws.  Yes, plastic straws.  I guess they wanted to make sure there is enough plastic for the free hypodermic syringes they are giving out. And, oh, another big accomplishment, by golly, was banning all drinks for children meals in restaurants except water and milk.  This may sound stupid, but we have all seen progressive parenting.

Maybe “Progressive” works when the progressive population is small and can be mostly ignored and/or tolerated by the population that pays the tab for it.  But when its population becomes something closer in size to the mainstream population it is painful to live with and financially unsustainable.

My advice to Arizonians:  get ready for the onslaught.  Accept those coming to Arizona to flee the devastation of California and join your culture, your values.  Be wary, however, of those coming to bring their devastation to Arizona.  My request, as we plan our move to Arizona, is please don’t duplicate California’s failures; don’t “Californicate” Arizona.

 

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29 Responses to California – Perfect Example of What Not to Be as a State

  1. J Soden says:

    We left in 2000 – best move we ever made! . Had to file non-resident Taxifornia taxes for awhile and found that Taxifornia socks the non-residents even more than residents!!! Why was I NOT surprised!!!!!! . Greedy Taxifornia even went so far as to try to tax those getting retirement payments from Taxifornia who lived in other states, but the Supreme Court slapped that down years ago.
    Thank goodness 2017 was the LAST year we had to file in Taxifornia. NV doesn’t have any state income tax, as do AK, TX, FL, WA, WY and SD. WY requires you to be in their state for 6 months before you qualify as a resident, and AK requires a year (due to oil and gas revenues).
    The only downside to departing Taxifornia is that some of the Leftie ideas make the move to the new state. So if you’re departing – leave the Lunatic Leftie/Progressive ideas behind!

    • Peggy says:

      Wait, you had to pay taxes to Calif. for 17 years, even though you didn’t live here?

      That’s insane!

      • Jim says:

        Normally you pay state income tax to the state where you earned the income. So if Soden is receiving a pension from the State of CA, he should pay CA tax on that income.

      • J Soden says:

        Had some income from property located in Taxifornia, so had to pay on that. Didn’t affect any other income we had outside
        Taxifornia, but still a hassle to deal with.
        Moving outta Taxifornia also created issues with their DMV – they kept wanting $$ for vehicle registration even though all vehicles had been re-registered in NV. Only had one bank account left in Taxifornia and DMV confiscated $$ from it and also snatched a tax refund we were due. Bet you didn’t know that the DMV has that power!
        Had to write to both Gray Davis and the Governator to get our $$ back!

      • Libby says:

        Come on, Peggy. Look it in the face. J is a PERS boy … and a dishonorable one at that … collecting one of them fat taxpayer funded pensions … and then taking it off to spend elsewhere than in the gracious state which pays it to him. Cheesy, I call it.

        Seriously. You’d think such flaming hypocrisy would melt off body parts … but apparently not.

        • J Soden says:

          That issue went to the Supreme Court, and SCOTUS held that trying to set rules for folks living outside of a state or city jurisdiction was a violation of the Voting Rights Act.

          And regarding Lippy’s comment below – once again she displays her diarrhea of the mouth and has no idea what she’s talking about!
          My cat makes more sense than she does!

  2. Libby says:

    Fine. Go.

    And the 5th largest economy on the planet will go chugging along without you.

    • Post Scripts says:

      So Libby, what are you really saying? Are you saying all your needs from the gov. are being satisfied? That you are happy with DMV fees? That you are happy with the appearance of homeless encampments and RV’s around Oakland? That you are happy with the road conditions, with the state taxes and our education system? You are happy with the cost of prisons?

      By dismissing that guys letter and all the stuff I bring up, it looks to me like you are perfectly happy with CA because it has the 5th largest economy and nothing else matters except for this title?

      PS CA is the 6th largest economy because of the tech industry. Without Silicon Valley we would be up a creek.

      • J Soden says:

        Libby hasn’t done the math. Once businesses and taxpayers leave, those who remain behind have to make up the difference to pay for the important stuff like funding for Illegals . . . . . . .

        • Post Scripts says:

          A good point J. Soden. So far CA has been able to cover the damage from the Great Exodus with the money from Silicon Valley. Hate to think what we would become without their money.

    • Lone Star says:

      Hell Fire, If dumb was dirt, that Libby could cover about an acre.

      Those folks leavin’, they are the ones who’s payin the bill’s. Yer squaters got more sense than to give up a gold mine, that is ’till it is all played out!

  3. Libby says:

    I just checked out that poll. How do you live with yourself? Don’t you have a conscience at all? Again, and again, and again, and again … you get caught lying about anything that will support your point.

    “But like 46% of Bay area residents ….”

    It’s 46% of the 1000 people polled … 416 people … not 46% of the 8 million people who live in the Bay Area. I wish you would stop doing this.

  4. Peggy says:

    Interesting interview on 60 Minutes with Fed. Res. chair.

    Good news; future economy.
    Bad news; drug addiction reducing labor force participation.

    https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jerome-powell-federal-reserve-chairman-60-minutes-interview-2019-03-10/

  5. Libby says:

    Did I say the place was perfect? It’s not. But it beats the hell out of Idaho. There ain’t diddly-squat to do in Idaho, except shoot things with your gun.

    On Thursday, I’m going to go look at the work of a little girl who calls herself the “Social Justice Sewing Circle”. She runs art projects in public schools.

    On the other hand, if you come down to visit, stay the hell away from the University Avenue off ramp. The camp there is the most demoralizing spectacle. If you made me dictator, I would drag them all, kicking and screaming, into rehab. But no one will make me dictator. So, we gotta do it the hard way, democratically.

  6. More Common Sense says:

    Job alert.

    I just heard on KPAY radio this morning that San Francisco has just announced they are ramping up hiring people to clean up the human feces. It seems that their program to give people a phone number (311) to report human feces wasn’t enough. Typical of liberal problem solving it didn’t work. They finally figured out that reporting the feces doesn’t solve the problem so they are now hiring more people to clean up the mess. Typical of liberal problem solving this also doesn’t solve the problem, it just addresses a symptom of the problem, but at least it is an improvement.

    Anyone want one of these jobs?

    Before you say no, you need to know the salary they are offering people to become a member of the poop patrol. The salary has expanded to $181,000 per year. I guess no one will do it for minimum wage. I’m not sure what kind of qualifications or experience you need, although anyone that has owned a good size dog probably knows what to do.

    No need for a college degree. Of course anyone with a liberal arts degree is probably under-qualified, especially if the focus is on Gender or Women’s Studies. Hmmm, are there any Men’s Studies programs? Anyone with a Political Science degree probably shouldn’t apply either since that discipline is more about creating what this job is suppose to take away.

    I assume benefits are provided along with the salary and I certainly hope, given the nature of the job, the benefits include health insurance.

    So, if you are making the average wage of $24,430 in Butte County here is your chance to move up in the “food chain” (sorry). Think about the job security. The liberals in Sacramento are busy churning out more wacko state legislation that will make sure there is an even larger homeless poop-ulation.

    So make your move (or movement). All you need is a shovel!

    • More Common Sense says:

      Chico has the annual “Run for Food” and the recent “Walk for Water”. Maybe San Francisco needs to have the “Scoop for Poop”.

      Maybe San Francisco can be a future location for the Summer Olympics. No need for hurdles as running obstacles. Or maybe the Winter Olympics. Nice steep hills and no need for snow.

      • Post Scripts says:

        I like your thinking Common Sense. I can see it all now, there could be team blob-sledding, slow-boarding, uh, poop curling… heck, could even have a new way to do the shot put, or should I say SH– put? Talk about excitement…can you imagine watching a skier “take a dump” and cartwheeling in the down-hill slalom….the agony of defeat and the not-so-sweet smell of victory!

        • Joe says:

          In Heaven the streets are paved in gold but in San Francrisco the streets are paved in excrement and needles and the progressives would have it no other way.

          And to think the last mayor of that city is now our governor.

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