Sunday, September 7, 2014

Summer of Recovery - And the Golden State

Another Summer of Recovery...


Despite 0% interest rates, $7 trillion in added debt, more than $1.5 trillion in stimulus, and the Fed creating more than $4.5 trillion in new money out of thin air, the US economy just stumbles along. Hope and change turned out to be national malaise as Americans come to faintly grasp the reality that bigger government is never the answer - to anything.

The California model is instructive. Every state has one set of people contributing to the coffer—namely, private sector workers—and another drawing from it—namely, government workers and welfare recipients. In healthy states, the contributors outnumber the users. In unhealthy states the reverse is true.

California is in trouble. For every 100 people employed in the private sector it has 113 people drawing benefits. A person working at Disney or Intel or a fast food franchise is carrying his own weight plus that of one other person. Many factors contribute to California’s budget crisis. The state has a big university system, an influx of needy immigrants and an expansive notion of how involved the government should be in people’s lives.

The California response is to double-down and spend more as businesses leave in record numbers. Of the fifty US States, California taxes more while being one of the the most unfriendly to business. In California, the State tax rate runs at roughly 10% for earners making over $47,000 per year. In neighboring Nevada, it's 0%. The State corporate tax rate in California is almost 9%. In neighboring Nevada, it's 0%. California seems to be following the path first trod by New York state, which dominated the nation's economy through the early part of the 20th century, only to see massive outmigration of jobs and people, and subpar employment growth as its taxes and regulations rose.

(NewsMax) [By the first quarter of 2014], Texas added 30,000 new jobs, while in February California lost 31,000 jobs. And that’s not all. Frank points out individual taxes are so much higher in California that when people move to Texas “most get a 10 percent pay raise — due to the lack of an income tax. The companies get a 10 percent rise in profits, due to lack of state corporate tax. It is win-win in Texas and lose-lose in California.”



16 comments:

Race Bannon said...

…and, its insulting when we refer to "makers" and "takers."

WoFat said...

I've heard it said that California is going to transfer itself into the sea. Keep your boat handy, maybe get a spot - while they're cheap - at the Port of Las Vegas.

jenny said...

Can attest to the fact that they're all moving to Texas. They're everywhere. And since they've got all this extra money now, they're crowding up the restaurants and stuff.
Good for the value of my house, I guess, but generally I'm not real wild about our influx of non-southerners. Going to start wearing a t-shirt that says, "Howdy, y'all. Welcome to Texas. Now, ASSIMILATE."

LL said...

Race, California is short on makers these days, but it's got a lot of takers and fakers.

WoFat, Copy that.

Jenny, Do I have to say "y'all" when in Texas? I need to get one of those book on how to "talk Southern" so that I can get by.

LL said...

California people are a lot like an influx of wealthy zombies. They arrive and they they work hard to Californiacate the place, voting Democrat, pushing for social justice and unisex restrooms in the schools.

Look at Colorado. The place has been destroyed by Californicaiton. Arizona is next on the hit parade along with Texas.

jenny said...

Assimilate or go home, Larry. Start working on your twang now.

(I've heard a couple Canadian friends say they feel self-conscious when they slip and say "y'all" even after living here for years. They worry people will think they sound weird saying it. All the Texans standing around during these conversations are quick to assure them that it sounds far stranger when they DON'T use it. Assimilate!)

LL said...

Well, bless your heart...

jenny said...

weeeeellll, that's an okay start. Good try. Maybe stick to things that aren't only for women.
Try to channel your inner cowboy, not your inner countrified grandma... :)

LL said...

Don't get your feather's ruffled, Jenny. I think that I need to go out and buy some of those cheap Fruit-o-the-lomb wife beater t-shirts, take up dipping snuff and buy an old car that won't run but has potential to keep me busy as a stump-tailed cow in fly time. I'd be standin' in tall cotton.

See, it's easy as sliding off a greasy log backwards!

jenny said...

Oh dear. Really not working.

LL said...

So, I think that I hear you saying that I just wouldn't be accepted in Texas -- even if I chewed tobacco.

jenny said...

Let's rethink this and play to your strengths.

We do need a good wealthy-zombie assassin. You're probably just the guy. I expect you could recognize these dunces from a mile away, show them your neck-snapping credentials, and enforce the whole "assimilate or die" vigilante law.

Texas would welcome such a diplomat, regardless of accent, I'm sure of it.


LL said...

I would only accept your offer if I can get a Texas passport that I can show to people who inquire. I will need to reassure them that I'm in the state legally despite my inability to speak Texan.

I checked with Rosetta Stone and there is no software package that I can buy to learn to speak Texan. Why is that?

Braht: Dazzing. "Venus is a braht planet."

Dreckly: Soon. "He'll be along dreckly."

Everhoo: Another baffling Southernism - a reverse contraction of whoever."Everhoo one of you kids wants to go to the movie better clean up their room."

Fahn: Excellent. "That sure is a fahn-lookin' woman."

Farn: Anything that is not domestic. "Ah don't drink no farn liquor, specially Rooshin vodka."

Fetchin': Attractive. "That's a mighty fetchin' woman. Think I'll ask her to daints."

Got a good notion: A statement of intent. "Ah got a good notion to cut a switch and whale the dickens out of that boy."

Grain of sense: An appraisal of intelligence, invariably expressed in negative terms. "That boy ain't got a grain of sense."

Jack-leg: Self taught, especially in reference to automobile mechanics and clergy-men. "He's just a jack-leg preacher, but he sure knows how to put out the hellfire and brimstone."

Lick and a promise: To do something in a hurried or perfunctory fashion. "We don't have time to clean this house so it's spotless. Just give it a lick and a promise."

Shainteer: Indicates the absence of a female. "Is the lady of the house in?" "Nope. Shainteer."

See, I'm trying.

I think that I will have to get used to eat pee cans. In the West, we use pee cans for a different purpose than you do in Texas.

LL said...

I want to open the wender cuz I'm layin-up in the howz. But if I do, skeeterz'll flit in.

How's that?

jenny said...

LOL Wow, okay, seems I ought to be taking lessons from YOU at this point.
I'll get your passport worked up asap.

LL said...

I think that I need a long horn belt buckle (to completely validate my intentions).

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