california dreaming - guardian 4.10.09

[INDY500]

Golden No Longer
George Will
Sunday, January 10, 2010

WASHINGTON -- Dalton Trumbo (1905-1976) was a hero to the American left, partly because of his 1939 anti-war novel "Johnny Got His Gun." Trumbo's title modified the lyric "Johnny get your gun" from the World War I song "Over There." Trumbo's "Johnny" is horribly maimed in that war. Now we need a novel titled "Berkeley Got Its Liberalism." Pending that, we have Tad Friend's report, in the Jan. 4 New Yorker, on maimed Berkeley.

California, a laboratory of liberalism, is spiraling downward, driven by a huge budget deficit. So the University of California system's budget was cut 20 percent. Then the system increased in-state student fees 32 percent to ... $10,302. But that is still 70 percent below student costs at Stanford and other private institutions in California that Berkeley considers no better than it is.

Last September, Friend reports, 5,000 Berkeley employees and students rallied in Sproul Plaza, scene of protests that ignited the 1960s and helped make Ronald Reagan governor. Some protesters, says Friend, were "naked except for signs that read 'BUDGET TRANSPARENCY.'" At an indoor meeting, a "student facilitator" used a projection screen to summarize proposals, which included: "rolling strikes"; "nationalize all universities"; "socialist revolution"; "a tent city in Sacramento"; "create a shadow Board of Regents"; "occupy Wells Fargo Bank in downtown Oakland"; "worker-student control of the university"; "strike in March"; "act now, f--- March"; "capitalism is bad." Toward the end of the seven-hour meeting, participants shouted "General strike! General strike!"

In its impact on the institution, and on students trying to grip the lower rungs of the ladder of social mobility, the UC system's crisis is sad. This academic year, only one-sixth of the normal number of new faculty have been hired at Berkeley. The Cal State system -- a cut below the UC campuses -- will enroll 40,000 fewer students this year than last. But because the professoriate is overwhelmingly liberal, there is rough justice in its having to live with liberalism's consequences, which include this:

Kevin Starr, author of an eight-volume -- so far -- history of the (formerly) Golden State, says California is "on the verge" of becoming something without an American precedent -- "a failed state." William Voegeli, writing in the Claremont Review of Books, tartly says that "Rome wasn't sacked in a day, and California didn't become Argentina overnight." Indeed.

It took years for liberalism's redistributive itch to create an income tax so steeply progressive that it prompts the flight from the state of wealth-creators: "Between 1990 and 2007," Voegeli writes, "some 3.4 million more Americans moved from California to one of the other 49 states than moved to California from another state."

And the state's income tax -- liberalism codified -- intensifies the effects of business cycles on the state's revenue stream: During booms, the stream surges and stimulates government spending; during contractions, revenues dwindle but the new government spending continues. Voegeli says that if California's spending had grown no faster than population growth and inflation from 1992 to 2006, it would have been $65 billion less in 2006, and per capita government outlays then would have equaled not those of Somalia or Mississippi but of Oregon, which is hardly "a hellish paradigm of Social Darwinism."

It took years for liberalism's mania for micromanaging life with entangling regulations to make California's once creative economy resemble Gulliver immobilized by the Lilliputians' many threads. The state, which between 1990 and 2007 lost 26 percent of its factory jobs and 35 percent of its high-tech manufacturing jobs, ranks behind only New York, another of liberalism's laboratories, in the number of outward-bound moving vans.

It took years for compassionate liberalism to make California's welfare menu contribute to the state becoming an importer of Mexico's poverty.

It took years for servile liberalism to turn the state into what Voegeli calls a "unionocracy," run by and for unionized public employees, such as public safety employees who can retire at 50 and receive 90 percent of the final year's pay for life.

Friend reports that when the seven-hour meeting ended, the protest moved to the UC president's house. Two buses carried "some hundred Berkeley students and members of AFSCME." Perfect.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees is one reason why California's government employees -- their numbers grew 24 percent between 1997 and 2007 -- are the nation's most highly compensated. And why California's economy is being suffocated by the weight of government. And why the state's budget has little left over for Berkeley.

Expect Cahl-e-four-knee-uhhh to come groveling for a tiddy sum of "Obama cash" sometime this year.

[INDY500]

Good news for California. They now have a chance to elect 2 candidates, Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman (for governor and U.S. senate) with proven business experience at maximizing efficiency, creating jobs and working within budgets.

Of course there is a choice. One can always vote for the big-government-liberal Democratic career politicians, Jerry Brown and Barbara Boxer, who helped engineer California's current woes.

[deep]

yeah, mama grizzly bears are on the prowl

and in Blue state CA , either or both of these women have a good shot at getting elected,
2010 (scott brown) year of surprises?

[BVS]

One's from HP and one's from Ebay, right?

[deep]

yeah,
I watched Ebay Meg's speech last night, she seemed to copy a lot of Hillary's patterns and mannerisms from 2008 campaign, it has been a funny election, I have got about 15-20 robo calls a day on my land line.
and the amount of mailers, good god, my front room looked like a paper drive.
plus these liberal to moderate GOP candidates all tried to out conservative
each other,
'I will build a fence, and capture illegals and chop them into little pieces, etc. I will cut taxes and create 3000000 new jobs"

now for the general, they will race to capture independents, and mostly campaign as outsiders, a la Scott Brown, etc. They really do have a shot at getting elected in this Blue State,
also I forgot to mention that they are billionaires, and will spend a hundred million of their own dough to get the office.

pundits on the right and left here in CA
say they got real shots

[financeguy]

Originally Posted by INDY500

Good news for California. They now have a chance to elect 2 candidates, Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman (for governor and U.S. senate) with proven business experience at maximizing efficiency, creating jobs and working within budgets.

Carly Fiorina? Fair play, good joke.

[Irvine511]

until someone starts talking about cutting defense, they cannot be taken seriously when it comes to the deficit.

there's not much left to cut. all that's left is defense and entitlements.

[BVS]

Originally Posted by deep

pundits on the right and left here in CA
say they got real shots

So far, that's what I've read, but that Carly Fiorina may have some issues, given her company's standing when she left and the compensation she got might not sit well with the angry at Wall Street types

But will those that vote for the primary's loser show up when it matters?

[INDY500]

Originally Posted by Irvine511

until someone starts talking about cutting defense, they cannot be taken seriously when it comes to the deficit.

Well maybe we can agree here. I'll listen to any pol who says everything must be on the table. Unfunded entitlements is what will bust us but I'm guessing most Americans are also ready to let Europe and Canada defend themselves. I am.

there's not much left to cut. all that's left is defense and entitlements.

Oh I don't know, I think most Americans are also ready to forgo future $750 Billion slush funds stimulus packages or the countless government funded studies of the mating habits of insects. I am.

Randy little beetles.

[Irvine511]

the stimulus should have been bigger. but i'm glad we agree on defense cuts. even Gates wants to see this happen.

and talking about stuff like cutting, say, the NEA, or whatever "studies" we're talking about, is absolute pennies in comparison to where the money is actually spent. that's just stuff that's done to make political points -- i.e., Jessie Helms vs. Mapplethorpe -- and doesn't do much to tackle the actual problem.

and we can also talk about going back to Clinton-era tax rates.

[martha]

Originally Posted by INDY500

Good news for California. They now have a chance to elect 2 candidates, Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman (for governor and U.S. senate) with proven business experience at maximizing efficiency, creating jobs and working within budgets.

Yeah, we get more bazillionaires who have no idea how a government functions!!! We've seen how well that works with that fucking moron we have now. I can't wait for more of that kind of "leadership." The kind that's plunged us down the rabbit hole.




But wait. INDY says it's all those fucking Mexicans' fault. It has NOTHING to do with poor leadership or an obsession with "no new taxes."

I'll be happily voting for Governor Moonbeam again. he knows how to handle a state like mine. He dug us out once before, he can do it again.

[INDY500]

Originally Posted by martha

Yeah, we get more bazillionaires who have no idea how a government functions!!! We've seen how well that works with that fucking moron we have now. I can't wait for more of that kind of "leadership." The kind that's plunged us down the rabbit hole.

But wait. INDY says it's all those fucking Mexicans' fault. It has NOTHING to do with poor leadership or an obsession with "no new taxes."

Your taxes are so high now that

"Between 1990 and 2007 some 3.4 million more Americans moved from California to one of the other 49 states than moved to California from another state."

You think MORE and HIGHER taxes are the answer? You think importing poverty from Mexico is the answer?

I'll be happily voting for Governor Moonbeam again. he knows how to handle a state like mine. He dug us out once before, he can do it again.

Are you higher than your taxes? Must be tokin' on some Mellow Gold as you only dropped 2 f-bombs in your post. Well below your average.

[martha]

Originally Posted by martha

But wait. INDY says it's all those fucking Mexicans' fault.

Originally Posted by INDY500

You think importing poverty from Mexico is the answer?

[martha]

Originally Posted by INDY500

you only dropped 2 f-bombs in your post. Well below your average.

Fuck yeah!!!

[Irvine511]

i think CA should legalize marijuana and tax the shit out of it.

that, and make a shit ton off of gay marriage.

[martha]

Originally Posted by Irvine511

that, and make a shit ton off of gay marriage.

Next you'll say Mexicans should allowed to get married.

[Irvine511]

Originally Posted by martha

Next you'll say Mexicans should allowed to get married.

only to other mexicans. we have children to think about.

[AliEnvy]

Originally Posted by Zoomerang96

how does california get out of this?

Originally Posted by AliEnvy

Necessity is the mother of invention and there is hi-density creativity/innovation in a few spots in CA. I imagine something along the lines of green energy will get them (and the rest of us) out as mentioned in the article.

Creative Class ? Blog Archive ? Building the Next (and Greener) Silicon Valley - Creative Class

Our Climate Prosperity project is doing nothing less than bringing America to a new energy future. We see it as Silicon Valley’s biggest opportunity in decades. In other words, our view is that global warming isn’t a crisis, it’s an opportunity, to innovate, to make money, and to use the market to change our consumption patterns and end our dependency on oil. We’ve assembled a council of Silicon Valley’s best and brightest coming out of the cleantech sector, and we’ve matched them with counterparts in the public sector, and the meetings are inspiring because everybody is on the same page, asking the same question: How can we do this better, faster? How can we accelerate these changes and facilitate their emergence in Silicon Valley? Then, how can we scale what works in Silicon Valley to the entire nation? Our biggest accomplishments to date are forming the nation’s largest renewable energy power purchasing program, building a new association for the battery technology cluster, making a serious run at DOE funding for an energy retrofit program on commercial buildings, and pulling together a consortium of tech companies who want to make the nation’s best smart grid.

[INDY500]

Our biggest accomplishments to date are forming the nation’s largest renewable energy power purchasing program, building a new association for the battery technology cluster, making a serious run at DOE funding for an energy retrofit program on commercial buildings, and pulling together a consortium of tech companies who want to make the nation’s best smart grid.

Green energy runs on government greenbacks. It runs until the money runs out.

[BVS]

It's called a springboard...