Or: What in the Hell Happened to the Golden State?
A few days ago, someone on Quora posted yet another ragebait item about deep-Blue California having the fifth-largest economy in the world, whereas red states were all populated by losers and parasites.
Right.
Here’s the thing: California OUGHT to have a great economy because it has absolutely everything going for it. Trillions of dollars in mineral wealth, including oceans of oil and natural gas, millions of acres of nearly perfect farmland, great weather, an ocean with lots of natural harbors for ports, mountains, forests, deserts. Magnificent scenery everywhere. The tech industry was born here after World War II and grew with the boom years that followed. Hollywood made movies the whole world wanted to see. In its heydey, the 1950s and ‘60s, California truly was the shizzle. Everyone wanted to live there. Life wasn’t just good, it was GREAT. And it was totally affordable. When you thought “America” California is what came to mind.
Now it’s swamped with zombies on meth, shanty towns fill the streets of its major cities, in many places you must mind where you step because there is shit everywhere, crime is soaring, the Cartels control vast swaths of the inner cities and the countryside, and swarms of border-jumpers wave giant Mexican flags at frequent, massive anti-American rallies. Organized criminals break into trains as they idle on sidings to rob them of their packages, unmolested by the Law, leaving mountains of emptied boxes and packing material to rot in the sun. On any given day mobs of young hooligans may appear out of nowhere to attack businesses and strip them bare or stage takeovers of major intersections. Police seem powerless to stop them.
In any major metro area, a 1000-square, three-bedroom two-bath starter home on a tiny lot costs a million or more. If money’s tight, you can finance the thing with a 99-year loan.
When the fires come, as they always do, there is not enough water to fight them because reservoirs have been intentionally emptied for no good reason and not refilled. Entire towns are incinerated. Leaders, box-checkers every one, feckless and clueless in equal measure, clutch their pearls, blame “climate change,” as though fires haven’t always been a thing, and make rebuilding so onerously difficult and expensive that third-and fourth-generation owners give up and sell their now-vacant lots at literally fire-sale prices. As the flames still rage, Governor Newsom, hair perfectly gelled, strikes “action” poses at carefully choreographed photo ops.
On top of tax rates that were already the second-highest in the country, Sacramento piles yet more taxes: per-mile taxes on vehicles, taxes on home sales, taxes on net worth, sales taxes, excise taxes, so-called billionaire taxes. An “exit tax,” a kind of parting gift for those who choose to leave, is in the works. The state stealthily plots to repeal Proposition 13, which limits property taxes to one percent of value, under cover of a proposed sham Amendment. If the repeal passes, when it passes, property taxes will explode, and all but the most humble homes will become unaffordable.
You will need an ID to board the state’s $150 billion, and counting, bullet train, if it ever gets built, but you cannot legally be required to prove your identity when you go to vote. Merely asking for ID is a criminal offense, punishable by imprisonment. Statewide votes take a month or more to count, and invariably go in a certain Party’s favor, no matter what polling says. Scads of “lost” votes often surface, conveniently. In 2024, several weeks into the official count, 2.5 million of these suddenly appeared, giving Kamala Harris just enough of a margin to deny her rival a numerical majority in the national tally.
To rent a Uhaul in California bound for any popular destination costs five times as much as the other way around. The state loses a hundred thousand residents or more, net, every year. Most are skilled professionals fed up with soaring costs and declining quality of life. They flee, by and large, to southern states like Florida or Texas or Tennessee, red states that cannot compete on scenery, but which prosper nonetheless because they offer competent, pragmatic management and a decent quality of life at a fair price. Those who flee are largely replaced by undocumented migrants with few if any marketable skills, who cannot or will not speak English, and are often on some form of State assistance. With increasing frequency, they gather in large groups to agitate for “Reconquista.”
Goaded by a dense web of anti-business regulations and taxes, large corporations that were once the backbone of the economy, have closed their offices and moved to other states, further eroding the tax base. In-n-Out Burger, that icon of Southern California Cool, recently announced its departure for Tennessee.
To be fair, there has been pushback, mostly at the local level. Under DA Chesa Boudin, who basically quit enforcing the law, San Francisco became a dystopian nightmare. He was recalled in a special election and replaced with Brooke Jenkins, a young go-getter who has energetically tackled the problem of car break-ins, for one, with encouraging results. There was an outpouring of public rage at LA Mayor Karen Bass and the city managers who epically mishandled the deadly, completely predictable, fires of January 2025. But as of this writing, no heads have yet rolled.
In spite of having every advantage, California is dying. What in the hell happened?
Two words: Democrat rule.