Is it too late to save the Golden State?
Yes. Let it sink.
I was unfortunately born there while my dad was on deployment. Anyway, let the damn place sink, ‘rats illegals and all.
•A minor who is 12 years of age will able to consent to medical care related to a sexually transmitted disease. No parental consent and knowledge required. Let’s remove the parents from the picture. The State will have ultimate jurisdiction over the child’s sexual behavior.
Those are just two of California's new laws.
I think the handbasket has now reached Hell.
Let it burn.
Who cares, they like shooting themselves in the foot now they cant walk and they want us to support them. Ask hollywood for money thats your “rich”
California will never recover.
It will be fixed with the next quake. They are all destined to be quakers.
As a practical matter, yes it is too late to save California. We have passed a tipping point where there are more takers and taker enablers, than there are producers. So yes, California is doomed.
Any state that makes it harder to get a tan than get an abortion is too late to save.
Let them enjoy the fruits of their fruitiness. The state needs to go bankrupt. It’s for the children.
The more important question is not can we save California, but should we. California was created as a huge state because very few people live there. Now it is the most populace state. To big to fail is too big to exist. California should be allowed to fail, then be broken up into two or possibly three states. Isolate the coastal nuthouse and free the interior of the state. There are more conservatives in California than Oklahoma, but their voice will never the heard so long as they are tied to the coastal albatross of LA and SF.
If the state ever does recover significantly, it will take approximately 30 years. That is roughly how long it would take for any public-pension reforms to begin benefitting the state, because it seems those reforms ONLY could impact “new hires.”
As to current employees, we have hundreds of BILLIONS in unfunded obligations to cover in the next 30 years.
DOOM.
There are limits to “sinking”, so it’s best to consider what to do to reform California once it is in the gutter. America does not need a “ghetto state”, nor do we need quirky Californian refugees coming to the rest of the country to spread their quirkiness around. Utah saw some of that and found it most unpleasant until the Californians packed up and left, themselves woefully unhappy in the absence of the quirkiness of others and the distaste of Utahans for it.
Perhaps the best solution for bad government would be to put California under receivership until it has been restored to order. The biggest obstacle to this would be their federal judges, who are among their quirkiest residents.
“Chapter 9 of the U.S. bankruptcy code allows individuals and municipalities (cities, towns, villages, etc.) to declare bankruptcy. But that doesn’t include states. (The statute defines “municipality” as a “political subdivision or public agency or instrumentality of a State”—that is, not a state itself.)
“For one thing, states are said to have sovereign immunity, as protected by the 11th Amendment, which means they can’t be sued. In other words, they don’t need any protection from angry creditors who would take them to court for failing to pay their debts. As a result, states can simply borrow money ad infinitum.
“Say the state can’t make its debt payments, and no one will lend it any more money. In that case, the federal government can step in and put the state into receivership.
“This would involve the assignment of an accountant to manage the state’s debt, overseen by a judge. It would be a lot like bankruptcy, except instead of following a structured set of steps—informing creditors, appointing creditors’ committees, a 120-day window to file a plan, etc.—a receiver has the authority to force creditors to renegotiate loans in a speedy fashion.
“However, the accountant in charge would not have the power to make decisions about the state’s budget, such as which programs needed to be cut and which taxes had to be raised.”
This effectively means that in such a scenario, California would remain as dysfunctional as it is today.
But an alternative might be for the state to appoint a state controller to create a state budget that by mutual agreement by 2/3rds of the legislature would be voted on in a single up or down vote, close to sight unseen.
Once this was done, of course, every part of it would be challenged in court, so could only be done if the state and federal judiciary decided, or were ordered by the state legislature and congress, respectively, to keep hands off.
Public employee unions run California. Until the union-democrat funding stream is cut there is no hope for the state. Say hello to Greece.
On a percentage basis and other metrics, ILL-ANNOY is in far worse shape. It is a race to the bottom.
With all due respect to the CA FReepers, a bunch more reasons to leave CA pronto.
California is a peculiar place to say the least. I go back yearly to visit family over the holidays, so the gradual changes are more apparent. The money is gradually being squeezed into the dense coastal areas, while the truly productive areas wither on the vine. Case in point: the Berkeley/Richmond/Emeryville area is alive with new store fronts and townhouse living. Jam packed with people and money. These are the ones too busy chasing material things and sucking on a starbucks like a nipple to notice or care about the deplorable political and fiscal state of the state. You’d think by looking around we were in a booming economy. However, in contrast to that apparent wealth, the once verdant central valley is a depression era shadow of its former self, with once thriving communities on life support. Barely recognizable from just a few short decades ago. California is a land of contrasts.
Glad I visited a few times during the ‘80s while California was still the Golden State.
What accomplishments and by whom? Dr. Renee Richards? He/she never won a major tennis tournament even after the reverse-addadictomy.
The only thing that will save Californicatia is a total collapse. Then they can start from scratch and get rid of all of the dead weight.