What Happens When Democrats Run Your State

 

In the video below, the Democrat carefully explains that people need to understand that the new California model is to have multi-generational families in each residence. That there is simply no need to increase housing — only population numbers via immigration are to be increased — not housing units.

In Stockton, CA, waves of immigration hit in the late 1980s through the 1990s. People were quick to divide up their homes into small apartments and some built granny units in their backyard.

So many people in Stockton became landlords. A lot of this was done “under the table” as building permits are expensive and require so much time. (A strip mall takes four years to get permitted in California, while in TX it takes only five months.) But the people living in the non-permitted units still needed schools, hospitals and clinics, police services, including prisons, and, of course, transit and highways. So it’s hardly surprising that Stockton went broke and declared bankruptcy.

For months, I have posted here that any time local officials are able to think about catering to immigrants, they stress the idea that it is too stressful for immigrants to learn English; the schools need to be mostly Spanish language. I often feel alone in this statement — but this video details how it is the reality.

The productive people are leaving the state. Note the wonderful interview with Jerry Brown, as he details his analysis — that the “smart business people will figure it out.” Sorry Moonbeam, the smart people now figure leaving this sorry state is the best business idea that they can come up with.

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  1. OkieSailor Member
    OkieSailor
    @OkieSailor

    Once the Golden Eggs Goose has been gutted it’s pretty hard for her to ‘figure it out’.

    • #1
  2. I Walton Member
    I Walton
    @IWalton

    Immigration is just one area and not a large one where liberal policies destroy.  Everything modern progressives touch, rots.  They never get anything right, never learn, never change and even when failure is obvious they simply double down. Clearly it’s not metaphorical to describe liberalism as a mental disease.   

    • #2
  3. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    CarolJoy: The productive people are leaving the state. Note the wonderful interview with Jerry Brown, as he details his analysis – that the “smart business people will figure it out.” Sorry Moonbeam, the smart people now figure leaving this sorry state is the best business idea that they can come up with.

    Your last sentence sums it up beautifully.  However, I think even the not-so-smart people are leaving too, fed up with the inability of their local governments to use common sense.

    • #3
  4. Kozak Member
    Kozak
    @Kozak

     

    Mexifornia: A State of Becoming

    If you haven’t, get it and read it.

    • #4
  5. PHCheese Inactive
    PHCheese
    @PHCheese

    What happens when Democrats run your State? If your smart you move.

    • #5
  6. DonG Coolidge
    DonG
    @DonG

    First, when escaping your progressive hellscape, please leave your progressiveness behind.  I imagine the sequel to Atlas Shrugged where John Galt is frustrated by all progressives moving to his utopia and ruining that.

    Second, the owners of housing stock also have a strong interest in prevent new housing.  There is terrible alignment between environmentalists, progressives, and landlords to prevent development.  Literal rent seeking.  All of this is bad for workers and prevents the movement of people to where jobs are.  That hurts the productivity of the nation and we are all worse off.

    • #6
  7. Unsk Member
    Unsk
    @Unsk

    Carol, you will be happy to note that my great state of California will have a ballot initiative in November that would allow Cities :

    A. To limit all residential rent increases even after a tenant leaves to like one or two percent

    B. To extend rent control to all  residences, even single family homes, condos and the really good part to even units built after 1995.

    So because these same cities can and often do these days raise taxes, fees, utility rates and other costs on rental units up the wazoo far outpacing the allowed rent increases , why would any  developer in his right mind build any more rental units?  Housing prices and rents are already way out of control. A new apartment in LA typically takes an income of around $100,000  just to qualify to rent, and this new wondrous ballot measure will only make matters worse- much worse. Our great Progressive Mayor ( and yes aspiring Presidential Candidate) Eric Garcetti is already looking into some wonderful new ways our city’s rent control ordinance can be expanded and tightened.   As the campaign director for the new initiative, Damien Goodmon said “The time for rent gouging by corporate landlords is coming to an end.” And apparently by those evil Mom and Pop landlords too.

    I was once elected to  what in LA City are called Neighborhood Councils, which are advisory to our local elected councilman who rules usually with a corrupt iron fist a district of about 300,000 people. That’s California democracy in action! Since I was an elected official I was privy to info not released to the general public. One little study that caught my eye was the one that came to the conclusion that for the period of 1990 to 2006, LA county had only allowed new housing to be built for around 100,000 people while at that same time, LA County had grown by probably 3-4 million people due to an huge influx of illegals.  Talk about the cause of the  housing crisis and creation of tenements!

    I know it’s now verboten to teach things like the law of supply and demand in schools these days, but if you really wanted to raise rents, restrict the supply of new units to way less than demand, and boy howdy are we going to restrict the supply of new units.  The pressure on rents will be astronomical.

    Welcome to the further Venezuelianization of California.

    • #7
  8. MarciN Member
    MarciN
    @MarciN

    It sounds like California needs people in government with business experience. 

    A guidance counselor told me once that for some kids, elementary and middle school work comes so easily that they don’t develop a work ethic or a way to learn. They run and succeed completely on intuition. When they get to high school, they get lost academically when the subject matter gets difficult. They have no solid learning and studying habits to get them through it.  

    California has a similar problem, I think. It doesn’t know how to create and manage and preserve wealth because money came to it too easily in its formative years. :-)

    • #8
  9. I Walton Member
    I Walton
    @IWalton

    MarciN (View Comment):

    It sounds like California needs people in government with business experience.

    A guidance counselor told me once that for some kids, elementary and middle school work comes so easily that they don’t develop a work ethic or a way to learn. They run and succeed completely on intuition. When they get to high school, they get lost academically when the subject matter gets difficult. They have no solid learning and studying habits to get them through it.

    California has a similar problem, I think. It doesn’t know how to create and manage and preserve wealth because money came to it too easily in its formative years. :-)

    Business experience wouldn’t  change the outcomes.  What they need is less government.  Business doesn’t work better because it has better people, it works better because it’s focus in narrow, it uses its own money, works on the basis or an information system that is up to the minute and even modest failure gets it replaced or improved.   It’s Darwinian.  Government is all dinosaurs all the time. 

    • #9
  10. MarciN Member
    MarciN
    @MarciN

    I Walton (View Comment):

    MarciN (View Comment):

    It sounds like California needs people in government with business experience.

    A guidance counselor told me once that for some kids, elementary and middle school work comes so easily that they don’t develop a work ethic or a way to learn. They run and succeed completely on intuition. When they get to high school, they get lost academically when the subject matter gets difficult. They have no solid learning and studying habits to get them through it.

    California has a similar problem, I think. It doesn’t know how to create and manage and preserve wealth because money came to it too easily in its formative years. :-)

    Business experience wouldn’t change the outcomes. What they need is less government. Business doesn’t work better because it has better people, it works better because it’s focus in narrow, it uses its own money, works on the basis or an information system that is up to the minute and even modest failure gets it replaced or improved. It’s Darwinian. Government is all dinosaurs all the time.

    If there’s a strong business influence on state government, those people can make a difference. New Hampshire thrives among the six New England states partly because of the influence of its business community on the state government. And I say that as an envious Massachusetts resident. :-)

    A strong business leadership group can exert a lot of positive influence at the state level.

    When Mitt Romney was running for president, he enjoyed tell the story from his Massachusetts governorship days of sending bills back to the legislature and policy plans back to the various state-level agencies asking for specific numbers. Paraphrasing, he said he couldn’t believe how few realistic numbers were attached to Massachusetts policies and plans. He did an enormous amount of good in just the four years he was our governor.

    • #10
  11. MarciN Member
    MarciN
    @MarciN

    I imagine that if California were to break into two or three separate states, it might turn out to be an excellent opportunity for some weeding out of their no-longer-useful legacy budgets and policies.

    Claire Berlinski once wrote on Ricochet, for example, that she could not understand California’s water woes. She said that Israel lives completely off of cheap desalinized water from the Mediterranean. I think California should have made that investment a long time ago.

    It’s changes like that one that would create a solid footing for the state’s finances that could be brought about as a result of restructuring the state into two or three parts. It would attract new management talent.

    • #11
  12. CarolJoy Coolidge
    CarolJoy
    @CarolJoy

    DonG (View Comment):

    First, when escaping your progressive hellscape, please leave your progressiveness behind. I imagine the sequel to Atlas Shrugged where John Galt is frustrated by all progressives moving to his utopia and ruining that.

    Second, the owners of housing stock also have a strong interest in prevent new housing. There is terrible alignment between environmentalists, progressives, and landlords to prevent development. Literal rent seeking. All of this is bad for workers and prevents the movement of people to where jobs are. That hurts the productivity of the nation and we are all worse off.

    In the wake of last year’s fires, that left around 15,000 households without houses, our wise and wondrous state legislators were  realizing they needed to look like they cared. So they then spent six weeks discussing whether or not Calif’s onerous building requirements could be relaxed to offset the tragedy. (For instance, allowing people to live in a mobile home on the site of their former burned out home.)

    In the end they didn’t make one single change or even recommendation. I guess accomplishing some needed changes  would have required another six weeks of time!

    • #12
  13. CarolJoy Coolidge
    CarolJoy
    @CarolJoy

    MarciN (View Comment):

    I think, albeit from my great distance from it, that if California were to break into two or three separate states, it might turn out to be an excellent opportunity for some weeding out of their no-longer-useful legacy budgets and policies.

    Claire Berlinski once wrote on Ricochet, for example, that she could not understand California’s water woes. She said that Israel lives completely off of cheap desalinized water from the Mediterranean. I think California should have made that investment a long time ago.

    It’s changes like that one that would create a sold footing for the state’s finances that could be brought about as a result of restructuring the state into two or three parts. It would attract new management talent.

    Even if voters would approve the splitting up of the state, the state legislators then would have to sign off on it. (I believe.) Which they probably would  never ever do.

    And if that hurdle were achieved, then Calif’s notoriously “liberal” state Supreme Court would quash  the idea.

    When I last lived in the SF Bay area, twelve years ago, there was talk of building a de-sal plant in Tiburon on Richardson Bay. (The bay eventually joins the ocean.) But it came with a 16 to 20 million dollar price tag. And environmentalists would find a way to say it can’t be built where the selected site was. However, they might have a point: the chosen location was in a place where it was suspected that the bay water level would rise to the height of the building within 10 to 12 years of its construction.

    • #13
  14. CarolJoy Coolidge
    CarolJoy
    @CarolJoy

    MarciN (View Comment):

    It sounds like California needs people in government with business experience.

    A guidance counselor told me once that for some kids, elementary and middle school work comes so easily that they don’t develop a work ethic or a way to learn. They run and succeed completely on intuition. When they get to high school, they get lost academically when the subject matter gets difficult. They have no solid learning and studying habits to get them through it.

    California has a similar problem, I think. It doesn’t know how to create and manage and preserve wealth because money came to it too easily in its formative years. :-)

    I’m not sure what period of time you are indicating as far as Calif’s formative years.

    The history of California is one of boom and bust. The gold rush boom of 1849 and then its bust.

    The dot com boom of 1999- 2000  and then its bust.

    Its real estate boom and then its bust.

    One part of its current psychology is that housing prices exploded around 1977-78. So a lot of people, who were living in marginal housing, that was not worth very much, suddenly found themselves worth half a million bucks or more. Immediately the Prop 13 initiative was passed, saving those home owners from ever paying the usual significant percentage of a home’s actual price. (Prop 13 states that a home owner only pays a tax on the value of the home on the day of its purchase.)

    Some people used their new found status wisely, and others put it straight up their noses. The latter group proved the adage of “Easy Come, Easy Go.”

    • #14
  15. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    Unsk (View Comment):
    Damien Goodmon said “The time for rent gouging by corporate landlords is coming to an end.”

    Spoken by someone who was probably never a landlord . . .

    • #15
  16. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    CarolJoy (View Comment):
    The history of California is one of boom and bust.

    The cycle is ending.  I believe California is at the beginning of a massive, final bust . . .

    • #16
  17. CarolJoy Coolidge
    CarolJoy
    @CarolJoy

    Stad (View Comment):

    CarolJoy (View Comment):
    The history of California is one of boom and bust.

    The cycle is ending. I believe California is at the beginning of a massive, final bust . . .

    I am hoping that it doesn’t evolve into civil war. And that I am gone from here soon.

    • #17
  18. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    CarolJoy (View Comment):

    Stad (View Comment):

    CarolJoy (View Comment):
    The history of California is one of boom and bust.

    The cycle is ending. I believe California is at the beginning of a massive, final bust . . .

    I am hoping that it doesn’t evolve into civil war. And that I am gone from here soon.

    Please pack your bags, because I don’t see any future other than a massive financial and civil collapse.  OTOH, I’m not known as a great prognosticator . . .

    • #18
  19. Taras Coolidge
    Taras
    @Taras

    CarolJoy (View Comment):

    When I last lived in the SF Bay area, twelve years ago, there was talk of building a de-sal plant in Tiburon on Richardson Bay. (The bay eventually joins the ocean.) But it came with a 16 to 20 million dollar price tag. And environmentalists would find a way to say it can’t be built where the selected site was. However, they might have a point: the chosen location was in a place where it was suspected that the bay water level would rise to the height of the building within 10 to 12 years of its construction.

    Why did they think the bay water level would rise?  Was this a bad global warming prediction?  It’s 12 years later:  did it rise?

    • #19
  20. CarolJoy Coolidge
    CarolJoy
    @CarolJoy

    Taras (View Comment):

    CarolJoy (View Comment):

    When I last lived in the SF Bay area, twelve years ago, there was talk of building a de-sal plant in Tiburon on Richardson Bay. (The bay eventually joins the ocean.) But it came with a 16 to 20 million dollar price tag. And environmentalists would find a way to say it can’t be built where the selected site was. However, they might have a point: the chosen location was in a place where it was suspected that the bay water level would rise to the height of the building within 10 to 12 years of its construction.

    Why did they think the bay water level would rise? Was this a bad global warming prediction? It’s 12 years later: did it rise?

    I think there were two cautious ideas about the Tiburon being the wrong place for the plant. One was that every Power Player, like Feinstein and Pelosi, as well as Brown, who were weighing in on it possesses the total belief in Global Climate Change causing the Pacific Ocean  and nearby waterways to be on the rise.

    But more importantly, I mistyped. It was actually 15 years ago when I first heard about the Tiburon desalination plant. And between then and now, the 2004 tsunami took place killing several hundred thousand people over in the East Asia/Malaysia  area.

    A tsunami is  a real possibility given that the entire San Francisco Bay area is on at least two active faults, with new faults being suspected all the time. (And also considering that a deep sea earthquake could also impact the Bay area with a tsunami as well.)

    Here is the latest news I just found via a search engine: https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/10-million-coming-to-Bay-Area-desalination-12759970.php

    The article details how the city of Antioch, in the East Bay, will be receiving some 10 million toward its desal plant. Another 34 million was offered by the government but those monies were to several locations south of San Francisco.

    • #20
  21. Gumby Mark Coolidge
    Gumby Mark
    @GumbyMark

    Surprisingly, I think Jerry Brown actually made the best observation on why California is in trouble when, in 2013, he said:

    Everybody with half a brain is coming to California!
      

    • #21
  22. Cow Girl Thatcher
    Cow Girl
    @CowGirl

    I got to live in California, altogether, for about 20 years. I moved to San Diego in 1973. We lived there till late 1986, then after a two years in another state, we moved to Ventura County in early 1989 for about seven more years. I LOVED it. The weather, the ocean, the strawberries, the inexpensive college (at that time…). We were transferred across the country after that, and I’m so sad that I cannot return to coastal California to live again. Right now–I’m in Nevada–I have a job, and can afford to live in a house here.

    I’m close enough to visit my blissful, beautiful beaches, and see the orchards and enjoy the weather. It is devastating to see the levels of poverty, and homelessness in the areas where we once lived. We weren’t rich, and none of our neighbors were, either. However, we all considered ourselves middle-class, and our children weren’t in gangs. But, now, my friends’ adult children must move to another state to be able to live in their own house. Many families in our formerly “nice” neighborhood have several generations living in one home because there is no way to afford to live otherwise. Gangs invest every school that used to be a reasonable place for our children–and I substituted at most of the schools in the area. I wouldn’t dare do that now, as an aging white lady.

    It is just really, really sad. I loved living there, 20 years ago.

     

    • #22
  23. Quietpi Member
    Quietpi
    @Quietpi

    CarolJoy (View Comment):
    In the end they didn’t make one single change or even recommendation. I guess accomplishing some needed changes would have required another six weeks of time!

    This is the way liberals “solve” every “crisis.”  They declare that “we need to have a conversation about this.”  Then they go ahead and have the conversation, and that, allowing them to feel good about themselves, because they’ve shown that they care, consider the crisis conquered.  

    If anything at all comes out of these conversations, it will be to outlaw something, that typically has little or nothing to do with the crisis.  It’s better, but not required, that the thing outlawed provides good optics.  

    • #23
  24. CarolJoy Coolidge
    CarolJoy
    @CarolJoy

    Quietpi (View Comment):

    CarolJoy (View Comment):
    In the end they didn’t make one single change or even recommendation. I guess accomplishing some needed changes would have required another six weeks of time!

    This is the way liberals “solve” every “crisis.” They declare that “we need to have a conversation about this.” Then they go ahead and have the conversation, and that, allowing them to feel good about themselves, because they’ve shown that they care, consider the crisis conquered.

    If anything at all comes out of these conversations, it will be to outlaw something, that typically has little or nothing to do with the crisis. It’s better, but not required, that the thing outlawed provides good optics.

    Yes, they have gone through several different earth shaking focal points in just 14 months. First they wanted all Civil War statues removed. Then they wanted absolute control over guns. Now it is on to boo hoo hoo-ing over the immigration dilemma.

    Solutions so far: none. But they capture headlines and divert attention from things that matter. Trump’s recent “win’s” regarding stopping the flow of money to ISIS; his middle class and small business tax break; his pulling us out of the expensive Paris Accords; his equally wise  withdrawal from the Iran “Peace Plan” and of course, his re-designating the Homelands Security Dept such that it can now make arrests against pedophiles and sex traffickers not only abroad but there at home are all matters that have gotten far too little acknowledgement. (Recent tally on the latter indicated over 6,000 arrests made, and over 2,000 women and children freed from their enslaved lives.)

    • #24
  25. CarolJoy Coolidge
    CarolJoy
    @CarolJoy

    Cow Girl (View Comment):

    I got to live in California, altogether, for about 20 years. I moved to San Diego in 1973. SNIP

    I LOVED it. The weather, the ocean, the strawberries, the inexpensive college (at that time…). We were transferred across the country after that, and I’m so sad that I cannot return to coastal California to live again. Right now–I’m in Nevada–I have a job, and can afford to live in a house here.

    I’m close enough to visit my blissful, beautiful beaches, and see the orchards and enjoy the weather. It is devastating to see the levels of poverty, and homelessness in the areas where we once lived. We weren’t rich, and none of our neighbors were, either. However, we all considered ourselves middle-class, and our children weren’t in gangs. But, now, my friends’ adult children must move to another state to be able to live in their own house. Many families in our formerly “nice” neighborhood have several generations living in one home because there is no way to afford to live otherwise. Gangs invest every school that used to be a reasonable place for our children–and I substituted at most of the schools in the area. I wouldn’t dare do that now, as an aging white lady.

    It is just really, really sad. I loved living there, 20 years ago.

    I totally relate, Cow Girl. We stayed in California because we had a very sweet rental deal living on an estate, rather run down situation but in gorgeous Sausalito for only the pittance of  $ 500 a month.

    Yes, yes, the beaches, the weather. For anyone in Marin County, Mt Tamalpais. My son went out of state to college. Upon graduation and his  realizing how unlikely it would be to afford a nice house here, he stayed in the MidWest.

    I was back in Marin about five years ago. I hit my favorite ice cream parlor. A woman and her teen aged son strolled in. I could tell from his back pack that the kid went to my son’s old HS. So I made small talk, “Isn’t San Rafael HS great?” They both looked at me like I was nuts. Apparently in the 12 years since my son had attended, the teaching staff had come under the thumb of La Raza. So only teachers who were semi-literate in English and Spanish were teaching at the school. Also gangs were taking over. (That HS had been so decent that G. had gotten a full scholarship equal  to  about $ 100K due to how much he had learned while there. I can’t believe how quickly things get destroyed here.)

    She mentioned the hoops she was jumping through to somehow get a scholarship for her son to attend private high school. She was hoping she wouldn’t have to spend his college monies on HS!

    • #25
  26. MarciN Member
    MarciN
    @MarciN

    The only point I was trying to make earlier was that California has fifth-largest economy in the entire world. Of the 10 richest zip codes in the country, 4 are in California. Actually, according to CNBC, 14 out of the top 20 are in California. The unemployment rate is a low 4.3 percent right now.

    It’s sad that it has so many big problems.

     

    • #26
  27. Unsk Member
    Unsk
    @Unsk

    Three of the most important of the many problems with Leftist Progressive’s controlling your state are:

    A. They insist on “magical thinking”, or a staunch refusal to live in the real world where there are consequences to every action.  They totally deny the idea of cause and effect, the real forces of nature, real climate change, laws of physics and mechanics and the law of supply and demand. Therefore almost anything they propose with real world consequences will fail miserably and almost immediately.

    B. They deny your Constitutional rights at will, and do not understand that those rights are there to protect the populace  rather than oppress them.  Almost every single one of their loony schemes is unconstitutional and can only be implemented by denying someone his or her rights,  often horribly, which they are perfectly willing do at will without any remorse. 

    C. They believe Free Markets are the problem rather than the solution. These loony Lefties are constantly trying to counteract the will of the Free Market blissfully unaware possible  that heavy handed government constraints on market forces will eventually come back and horribly bite you in the butt nearly every time.  They clearly don’t understand that Mother Economics, like Mother Nature can be one angry bitch when you cross her. 

    One other problem is that if you don’t completely agree them, you will trigger a vile and violent anger that at a minimum borders on psychosis, and often crosses that line. 

    • #27
  28. Jon1979 Inactive
    Jon1979
    @Jon1979

    Unsk (View Comment):

    Carol, you will be happy to note that my great state of California will have a ballot initiative in November that would allow Cities :

    A. To limit all residential rent increases even after a tenant leaves to like one or two percent

    B. To extend rent control to all residences, even single family homes, condos and the really good part to even units built after 1995.

    So because these same cities can and often do these days raise taxes, fees, utility rates and other costs on rental units up the wazoo far outpacing the allowed rent increases , why would any developer in his right mind build any more rental units? Housing prices and rents are already way out of control. A new apartment in LA typically takes an income of around $100,000 just to qualify to rent, and this new wondrous ballot measure will only make matters worse- much worse. Our great Progressive Mayor ( and yes aspiring Presidential Candidate) Eric Garcetti is already looking into some wonderful new ways our city’s rent control ordinance can be expanded and tightened. As the campaign director for the new initiative, Damien Goodmon said “The time for rent gouging by corporate landlords is coming to an end.” And apparently by those evil Mom and Pop landlords too.

    This is actually worse than in  New York, where the desirable locations are held onto by the renter with a literal death grip, but the landlord also holds onto the building because it is in a desirable location — when death finally looses the grip, or the tenant simply moves out, the landlord can then charge market rates.

    The California law’s limits on increases, especially if they’re below the rate of inflation plus the rising cost to maintain aging properties, means you may see landlords hold on in the preferred areas, if they’re still making some profit. But in the marginal ones you could get a 1970s Bronx/Brooklyn scenario, where the landlord is losing money on the property and just walks away from it.

    • #28
  29. Jon1979 Inactive
    Jon1979
    @Jon1979

    MarciN (View Comment):

    The only point I was trying to make earlier was that California has fifth-largest economy in the entire world. Of the 10 richest zip codes in the country, 4 are in California. Actually, according to CNBC, 14 out of the top 20 are in California. The unemployment rate is a low 4.3 percent right now.

    It’s sad that it has so many big problems.

    California’s economic divide is east-west, in that the coastal regions from San Diego to north of San Francisco are doing well, but outside of a few spots like Palm Springs or Sacramento, the inland areas are struggling, and the coastal voters who are in the majority don’t really care all that much (which mirrors what’s been going on now for the better part of 25 years in New York, where the nine-county area around New York City is doing fine, but the majority of upstate is struggling, and the voters down in the city really don’t care all that much).

    • #29
  30. SParker Member
    SParker
    @SParker

    Stad (View Comment):

    CarolJoy (View Comment):

    Stad (View Comment):

    CarolJoy (View Comment):
    The history of California is one of boom and bust.

    The cycle is ending. I believe California is at the beginning of a massive, final bust . . .

    I am hoping that it doesn’t evolve into civil war. And that I am gone from here soon.

    Please pack your bags, because I don’t see any future other than a massive financial and civil collapse. OTOH, I’m not known as a great prognosticator . . .

    Well, I’m widely known as an absolutely crappy prognosticator, but I think you Gloomy Guses are overlooking two things:

    1. Human Resilience.  Irretrievable collapse has always been a sucker’s bet.  It depends on your time-scale, of course.  The period between the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and the High Middle Ages was something like 800 years, with a lot of pestilence and Vikings running through them.  And I suppose the good people of Gaza will take a few thousand years to realize they’re sitting on a gold mine and finally pick up a shovel.  But going to the dismal limit and being witless enough to stay there for very long would be an unusual happening, even for us (native Californian speaking).  State debt defaults of the 1840s were a distant memory by 1850. ( I have nothing to back that up, but they certainly didn’t register in the national memory.)  Surely we’re not that much dumber than our ancestors.
    2. Asset Sale.  The Federal Government isn’t a whole lot better at managing its affairs than the Golden State, and a quick sale of some prime real estate may become awfully tempting.  We’ve established that a state can’t secede, but not that one can’t be sold.  It may not be “constitutional,” but I’m pretty sure when push comes to shove a passable argument can be cobbled out of Imperial Russia/Alaska and the Commerce Clause, that Swiss Army Knife and Philosopher’s Stone of legal reasoning.  Experience suggests that when push comes to shove the bar for “passable” gets set pretty low, not that its altitude has ever been exactly lofty.
    • #30
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