{"id":9376,"date":"2016-07-07T11:23:35","date_gmt":"2016-07-07T18:23:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=9376"},"modified":"2016-07-07T11:23:35","modified_gmt":"2016-07-07T18:23:35","slug":"will-california-ever-thrive-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/will-california-ever-thrive-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Will California Ever Thrive Again?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The state is sinking, and its wealthy class is full of hypocrites. <\/span><\/p>\n

By Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online<\/em><\/div>\n
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T<\/span>here was more of the same-old, same-old California news recently. Some 62 percent of state roads have been rated poor or mediocre. There were more predications of huge cost overruns and yearly losses on high-speed rail \u2014 before the first mile of track has been laid. One-third of Bay Area residents were polled as hoping to leave the area soon.<\/p>\n

Such pessimism is daily fare, and for good reason.<\/p>\n

The basket of California state taxes \u2014 sales, income, and gasoline \u2014 rates among the highest in the U.S. Yet California roads and K-12 education rank near the bottom.<\/p>\n

After years of drought, California has not built a single new reservoir. Instead, scarce fresh aqueduct water is still being diverted to sea. Thousands of rural central-California homes, in Dust Bowl fashion, have been abandoned because of\u00a0a sinking aquifer and dry wells.<\/p>\n

One in three American welfare recipients resides in California. Almost a quarter of the state population lives below or near the poverty line. Yet the state\u2019s gas and electricity prices are among the nation\u2019s highest.
\n<\/p>\n

One in four state residents was not born in the U.S. Current state-funded pension programs are not sustainable.<\/p>\n

California depends on a tiny elite class for about half of its income-tax revenue. Yet many of these wealthy taxpayers are fleeing the 40-million-person state, angry over paying 12 percent of their income for lousy public services.<\/p>\n

Public-health costs have soared as one-third of California residents admitted to state hospitals for any causes suffer from diabetes, a sometimes-lethal disease often predicated on poor diet, lack of exercise, and excessive weight.<\/p>\n

Nearly half of all traffic accidents in the Los Angeles area are classified as hit-and-run collisions.<\/p>\n

Grass-roots voter pushbacks are seen as pointless. Progressive state and federal courts have overturned a multitude of reform measures of the last 20 years that had passed with ample majorities.<\/p>\n

In impoverished central-California towns such as Mendota, where thousands of acres were idled due to water cutoffs, once-busy farmworkers live in shacks. But even in opulent San Francisco, the sidewalks full of homeless people do not look much different.<\/p>\n

What caused the California paradise to squander its rich natural inheritance?<\/p>\n

Excessive state regulations and expanding government, massive illegal immigration from impoverished nations, and the rise of unimaginable wealth in the tech industry and coastal retirement communities created two antithetical Californias.<\/p>\n

One is an elite, out-of-touch caste along the fashionable Pacific Ocean corridor that runs the state and has the money to escape the real-life consequences of its own unworkable agendas.<\/p>\n

The other is a huge underclass in central, rural, and foothill California that cannot flee to the coast and suffers the bulk of the fallout from Byzantine state regulations, poor schools, and the failure to assimilate recent immigrants from some of the poorest areas in the world.<\/p>\n

The result is Connecticut and Alabama combined in one state. A house in Menlo Park may sell for more than $1,000 a square foot. In Madera, three hours away, the cost is about one-tenth of that.<\/p>\n

In response, state government practices escapism, haggling over transgender-restroom and locker-room issues and the aquatic environment of a three-inch baitfish rather than dealing with a sinking state.<\/p>\n

What could save California?<\/p>\n

Blue-ribbon committees for years have offered bipartisan plans to simplify and reduce the state tax code, prune burdensome regulations, reform schools, encourage assimilation and unity of culture, and offer incentives to build reasonably priced housing.<\/p>\n

Instead, hypocrisy abounds in the two Californias.<\/p>\n

If Facebook billionaire Mark Zuckerberg wants to continue lecturing Californians about their xenophobia, he at least should stop turning his estates into sanctuaries with walls and security patrols. And if faculty economists at the University of California at Berkeley keep hectoring the state about fixing income inequality, they might first acknowledge that the state pays them more than $300,000 per year \u2014 putting them among the top 2 percent of the university\u2019s salaried employees.<\/p>\n

Immigrants to a diverse state where there is no ethnic majority should welcome assimilation into a culture and a political matrix that is usually the direct opposite of what they fled from.<\/p>\n

More unity and integration would help. So why not encourage liberal Google to move some of its operations inland to needy Fresno, or lobby the wealthy Silicon Valley to encourage affordable housing in the near-wide-open spaces along the nearby I-280 corridor north to San Francisco?<\/p>\n

Finally, state bureaucrats should remember that even cool Californians cannot drink Facebook, eat Google, drive on Oracle, or live in Apple. The distant people who make and grow things still matter.<\/p>\n

Elites need to go back and restudy the state\u2019s can-do confidence of the 1950s and 1960s to rediscover good state government \u2014 at least if everyday Californians are ever again to have affordable gas, electricity, and homes;\u00a0safe roads;\u00a0and competitive schools.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The state is sinking, and its wealthy class is full of hypocrites. By Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online There was more of the same-old, same-old California news recently. Some 62 percent of state roads have been rated poor or mediocre. There were more predications of huge cost overruns and yearly losses on high-speed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-2re","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8742,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/can-california-be-saved\/","url_meta":{"origin":9376,"position":0},"title":"Can California Be Saved?","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 22, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson\u00a0\/\/ National Review Online Crime is back up in California. Los Angeles reported a 20.6 percent increase in violent crimes over the first half of 2015 and nearly an 11 percent increase in property crimes. Last year, cash-strapped California taxpayers voted for Proposition 47, which so far\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "California"","block_context":{"text":"California","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/california\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"www.femtalks.com","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/bay-area-traffic-move-over-law.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1998,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-california-mordida\/","url_meta":{"origin":9376,"position":1},"title":"The California Mordida","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 14, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services California now works on the principle of the\u00a0mordida, or \"bite.\" Its government assumes that it can take something extra from residents for the privilege of living in their special state. Gov. Jerry Brown made that assumption explicit in his latest back-and-forth with Texas\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "California"","block_context":{"text":"California","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/california\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9839,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/california-goes-confederate\/","url_meta":{"origin":9376,"position":2},"title":"California Goes Confederate","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 9, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson\/\/ National Review Threatening secession is far from the only thing that the Golden State has in common with the Old South. Over 60 percent of California voters went for Hillary Clinton \u2014 a margin of more than 4 million votes over Donald Trump. Since Clinton\u2019s defeat,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Business"","block_context":{"text":"Business","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/business\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6467,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-myth-of-a-california-renaissance\/","url_meta":{"origin":9376,"position":3},"title":"The Myth of a California Renaissance","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 12, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Sacramento's strategy for recovery is more taxes, more regulation, and more government. by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0National Review Online\u00a0 Are the recent raves about a new California renaissance true? Rolling Stone\u00a0magazine just gushed that California governor Jerry Brown has brought the state back from the brink of \u201cdouble-digit unemployment, a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "California"","block_context":{"text":"California","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/california\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/SF_From_Marin_Highlands3-300x211.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10849,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/christmas-lessons-from-california\/","url_meta":{"origin":9376,"position":4},"title":"Christmas Lessons from California","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 21, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson\/\/ National Review \u00a0 Nature this year is predictably not cooperating with California. \u00a0 Rarely has such a naturally rich and scenic region become so mismanaged by so many creative and well-intentioned people. \u00a0 In California, Yuletide rush hours are apparently the perfect time for state workers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Water"","block_context":{"text":"Water","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/water\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10472,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/is-california-cracking-up\/","url_meta":{"origin":9376,"position":5},"title":"Is California Cracking Up?","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 10, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson\/\/ National Review \u00a0 With poor education, a budget deficit, and crumbling infrastructure, Californians shouldn\u2019t be focused on idealistic social programs. \u00a0 Corporate profits at California-based transnational corporations such as Apple, Facebook, and Google are hitting record highs. \u00a0 California housing prices from La Jolla to Berkeley\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Education"","block_context":{"text":"Education","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/education\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9376"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9376"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9379,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9376\/revisions\/9379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}