Posted on 01/14/2007 6:03:05 AM PST by radar101
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's elaborate rollout of his second-term agenda last week contained many moving parts and -- either inadvertently or by design -- underscored one of California's most salient trends: increasing socioeconomic stratification.
But in the midst of those celebratory occasions, Schwarzenegger unveiled a sweeping plan to bring health care insurance to the estimated 6.5 million Californians -- the working poor, for the most part -- who lack it, thus focusing attention on a growing underclass.
In one study, Mogull found that the state's poverty rate was 14.4 percent in 1959 and dropped to 11.1 percent in 1969, but "there has been a constant increase over the past 30 years," which he describes as "an ominous upward trend."
The rate was 14.2 percent in 1999 -- nearly 5 million people -- and is projected to rise again in this decade. By 2009, due to both population growth and a rising incidence of poverty, Mogull expects the number of poverty-stricken Californians to increase by another 25 percent.
He calculated that 4.7 million Californians lived in poverty in 1999 and a third of them lived in Los Angeles County, with Latinos by far the largest single poverty-stricken ethnic group. Latinos were a quarter of the Californians in poverty in 1969, a third in 1979, 44 percent in 1989 and more than 50 percent in 1999, reflecting both rapid growth in the state's Latino population and the simple fact that so many are immigrants with little education.
Half of Latino Californians living in poverty are in Los Angeles, and Mogull also notes that with housing costs much higher in Los Angeles than the nation as a whole, the data -- which are based on federal designations of income -- may be understating the actual incidence of poverty.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Having just visited Romania, it amazes me that our country is so willing to take on these largely illiterate, uneducated, illegal immigrants when there are nations around the world where:
1) the majority already speak English
2) have an extremely well-educated population
3) produce many quality professionals who could boost our economy and more than pay for themselves
4) are filled with people who like the US and would love to come here.
There are actually TV commericals over there on how to get a VISA in the US. The average engineer makes maybe $300-400 week.
But no, we would rather have yard worker Jose and his 7 kids.
Gee, I wonder why???
Socialism "ALWAYS" brings poverty, not sometimes, ALWAYS.
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The elite are just leveling off everybody's chip stacks is all. ;-)
Mindless muddlesome moderate munchen mongols.. socialists and their supporters, the whole damn lot, including here at FR... Believe it or not.
What happened to the old California, where peopled dreamed and innovated.
And that's what's sad. These kids over there were putting their name in the Green Card lottery and hoping.
Every single one of them could have been an asset to our economy, even if they only stayed a few years. All of them spoke English.
And we waste our time with these illegals, who end up costing us money.
The thing is, we can't overhaul our immigration policy now at the risk of appearing racist (racist, even if we increased immigration from, say, South Korea). And I'm not sure those in power would overhaul it if they could...
California is rapidly moving towards the standard 3rd world social model with a huge under class, a small upper crust and no middle class to speak of.
Link(s)?
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