Posted on 10/11/2012 8:54:17 AM PDT by Kaslin
Amusing California Satire by Walter Williams, but What if Gov. Brown Takes It Seriously?
I periodically mock the crazy statists of California. The state is almost surely doomed to suffer a Greek-style fiscal chaos. The only unknown is whether Illinois will beat the Golden State into default.
The politicians in Sacramento impose very high taxes to fund a bloated bureaucracy that oversees a bunch of politically correct nonsense.
But the scam may be coming to an end. Margaret Thatcher famously warned that the problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people’s money.
Well, that’s happening sooner in California because more and more people are deciding to leave the state.
Yet the moochers and looters than run the state aren’t learning the right lesson. They think that successful people are a pinata that can be endlessly beaten in the search for more revenue.
But there will come a point when they realize that the geese with the golden eggs are flying away. What will they do when reality slaps them in the face?
In a just and good world, they will realize they screwed up and reverse the horrible policies that crippled California. They will reduce the burden of government spending and replace the state’s class-warfare tax system with a simple and fair flat tax.
Unfortunately, we don’t live in that world. I’m worried that politicians in Sacramento will read the latest column by Walter Williams and not realize he’s being satirical. Walter starts out with a good description of what’s happening in the state.
California was once the land of opportunity, but it is going down the tubes. …people are already leaving California in great numbers. …roughly 225,000 residents leave California each year — and have done so for the past 10 years. They take their money with them. …California’s out-migration results in large shares of income going to other states, mostly to Nevada ($5.67 billion), Arizona ($4.96 billion), Texas ($4.07 billion) and Oregon ($3.85 billion). That’s the problem. California politicians can fleece people in 2012, but there’s no guarantee that they can do the same in 2013 and later years; people can leave.
He then speculates, tongue in cheek, about what sort of totalitarian measures a state government might take to prevent taxpayers from escaping.
…there might be a way for California politicians to solve their fiscal mess. They can simply stop wealthy people from leaving the state or, alternatively, like some Third World nations, set limits on the amount of assets a resident can take out of the state. …California [could] set up border controls to stop people, as East Germans did at Checkpoint Charlie, before they cross the state line… What California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris might do is sue Nevada, Arizona, Texas and Oregon in the federal courts for enticing, through lower taxes and less onerous regulations, wealthy California taxpayers.
Walter is joking, of course, but keep in mind that the federal government already has ventured into this territory with Orwellian laws such as “FATCA” that create a global reach for bad American tax policy.
And does anyone think the kleptocrats that run California will do the right thing so long as they have any hope that some new expansion of government power will prop up the welfare state for a few more years?
I’m predicting that California will continue its relative decline, particularly when compared to zero-income-tax states like Texas, followed by a nightmare scenario as the special interests groups and their political lackeys look for some way of prolonging the scam.
P.S. Here’s some anti-California humor, including a cartoon that’s very relevant for the upcoming tax-hike referendum, an amusing joke feature Texas and a coyote, a Humpty Dumpty cartoon, a photo that shows the California bureaucracy in action, and a cartoon featuring archaeologists from the future.
Ever since Clint Eastwood’s speech at the GOP convention, I’ve received lots of emails showing empty chairs.
Very few of them are clever enough to earn a chuckle, but here are two that stand out.
This first one made me think of Obama winning a Nobel Prize, even though he hadn’t actually done anything other than not being Bush (though he then proceeded to copy almost all of Bush’s policies).
So, in keeping with the “nothingness” theme, why not also put him on Mt. Rushmore? Only carve an empty chair into the rock to symbolize the same lack of achievement.
The second one exploits the theme of Obama’s excessive deference to foreign leaders (sort of like the funny Burger King image in this post).
I confess that there’s no policy content to these jokes, so I feel a bit chagrined for simply taking some cheap shots.
But I have done it before, as you can see here, here, and here.
“...mostly to Nevada ($5.67 billion), Arizona ($4.96 billion), Texas ($4.07 billion) and Oregon ($3.85 billion).”
The only problem is, many don’t understand the why, they just know they gotta move to get a job, with the result they turn the state they move to...blue.
People should realize that California has the greatest natural wealth of any state in the union. Farmland, minerals, oil, fisheries, natural beauty, climate, etc. Despite all that wealth its schizoid Democrat leaders have bankrupted the state. Obama if reelected of course will further tax and bankrupt the country to “bailout” his California cronies. Illinois is just as bizarre.
Two of the states I hate the most because of the general character of people I see living in them and they have massive financial and social problems. Geez I would never guess why.../s
I think they’re cheap shots only in the sense that they probably didn’t cost you a great deal to create. Good job!
The chair needs a whoopie cushion filled with hot air.
It would make an interesting book to describe the future collapse(s) of California. A sort of “if this happens then this happens” analysis of possible fates that can befall the state, with the big question, of “Then what happens?”, addressed.
The book should be in a scale of most probable and least destructive to less probable and most destructive.
For instance, “What happens if California can no longer pay for:”
Retirement benefits
Welfare benefits
Government employee paychecks
Higher and public education
Electricity
water
and the list goes on and on.
Great bumper sticker
http://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2011/02/19/very-snarky-anti-obama-humor/
"Hey! I'm here . . . . "
I don't remember who did it but my favorite is a cartoon that showed Mitt debating an empty baby's high chair with a pacifier on the tray.
Such a happy looking child. It’s a shame his parent’s poisoned him with the hatred and jealousy of marxism and racism.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.