Victor Davis Hanson // American Greatness
Californians brag that their state is the world’s fifth-largest economy. They talk as reverentially of Silicon Valley companies Apple, Facebook and Google as the ancient Greeks did of their Olympian gods.
Hollywood and universities such as Caltech, Stanford and Berkeley are cited as permanent proof of the intellectual, aesthetic and technological dominance of West Coast culture.
Californians also see their progressive, one-party state as a neo-socialist model for a nation moving hard to the left.
But how long will they retain such confidence?
California’s 40 million residents depend on less than 1 percent of the state’s taxpayers to pay nearly half of the state income tax, which for California’s highest tier of earners tops out at the nation’s highest rate of 13.3 percent.
In other words, California cannot afford to lose even a few thousand of its wealthiest individual taxpayers. But a new federal tax law now caps deductions for state and local taxes at $10,000—a radical change that promises to cost many high-earning taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars.
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Great article. I just wish California could listen to you more attentively wrt. the importance of history. The Rulers of Europe Every year, 400 BC - 2017 https://youtu.be/IpKqCu6RcdI The History of War Timelapse Every battle in history : 2500 BC - 2017 https://youtu.be/HK5OsDWYJmQ
Dr. Hanson, please consider writing that Gavin Newsom could become President simply by expanding California reservoirs. We on the Right would be grateful. With the wet winter, your theme of wasted water is a real time graphic.
There are several realities California will not face. Foremost is the fact that modern California has been built on free money from the outside. Free money from agricultural exports to other states and nations. Free money out of the ground to jump start the whole business, aka the Gold Rush. Free money coming into Hollywood and the entire entertainment industry complex largely centered in Los Angeles. And the capper, the one thing contemporary Californians, even white Californians, look right past. That is the Cold War and the aerospace defense boom which made such marvels as the California higher educational system possible. The rise of Silicom Valley has served somewhat as a replacement but it is not entirely so. Especially it is not a demographic replacement. One reality that Californians do to a degree recognize is that Anglo California was an aberration of world history fueled by a succession of never-to-be-repeated demographic events. The first of these was the Gold Rush, the last of them, and it is not a joke, was the "hippie" diaspora of the 1960's and 1970's. But even that, and it did leave a real imprint on the demographics and politics of Coastal California from Monterey Bay to Humboldt Bay, ended almost 50 years ago. What people do not recognize, or maybe I should say, other-than-Hispanic people, is what the end of Anglo Cailifornia actually means. It does not mean, a happy multicultural paradise full of sweet, promising upscale people. California chauvanists like to point to how large the California economy is. Those who are either smarting for a new civil war or California seccession do not realize how vulnerable California is and how unable to sustain itself California really is. California has no heavy industry, and that may be by design. California's heavy industry is located in Japan, China, Korea, Germany and the Eastern United States. California does have the capabiliy to be food independent but the state is only so if the Central Valley wants to provision the metropolitan areas. The two major metro areas both have only a few land gates in and out of them and these could be easily blockaded. The state itself in its entirety also has only a few land gates in and out and these also could be easily blockaded. The coast of California also could be blockaded pretty easily The idea of the United States breaking up or melting down is pretty far-feteched. But the people who want to see these things happen, or at least are willinng to contemplate them have no idea of how vulnerable California is. For that matter, if the people in the inland rural areas and the far north of the state decided to turn off the water spigot, the California Southland would be in great trouble to say the least. If the hottest heads prevail, the dream could turn nightmare very quick. Meanwhile, the only American megastate actually capable of functioning as an independent country is Texas. Put that in your pipe and smoke it. Or maybe don't. You'll need your head.