The Envy of Peter Robinson
I am well aware that envy is one of the deadly sins. I am also aware that those who reside in the land of my birth -- California -- pay a heckuva price for it in terms of insane regulation and even more insane politics. There my sympathies end. In New Jerseystan, where I live, we have more or less the same problems California does scaled down for our population, and of course we have a better governor.
Here's one difference. On Sunday night I had dinner with the Robinsons at their home on the Stanford campus. The beautiful Mrs. Robinson asked me if I should like lemon with my sparkling water. When I answered in the affirmative, she sent her son out to their garden in the back to pick one from their tree.
Generally I am not a man who covets my neighbor's anything. That lemon tree, however, really did it.
Yes, it's just an anecdote. You wonder, tho: all this talk about California's collapse, how bad can it really be? It doesn't look bad, and I've been driving all over the state the last few days. Granted I do not see the difficulty a business has in dealing with some crazy environmental restriction, and I've been mostly along the coast, the more prosperous parts. And I don't want to be George Bernard Shaw in the Ukraine, suggesting there could be no famine because he was certainly well fed.
Still, there's nothing about what you see that suggests a place facing truly dire straits, unlike, say, Michigan or even New York which can look very run down, especially in its infrastructure. How can this be -- the huge gap between what the numbers tell us and with the very pleasant appearance?
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Re: The Envy of Peter Robinson
Yes, he writes about the "other California." But I'm looking for more on the general opportunity costs for the whole state as well. Menlo Park is negotiating for (extorting from?) Facebook lots of concessions in exchange for permission to expand. If green Facebook has issues, what does that mean for other, less politically correct enterprises...
Nov '10
Re: The Envy of Peter Robinson
California, France, Greece, Spain -- all beautiful places that still have the veneer but not the substance of wealth. To their detriment, that veneer will enable them all to ignore their ills far longer than less pretty places. When they finally see the rot that socialism has caused, it will be far too late to save their once enviable state.