California In Crisis

[squigator]

Just in case you missed it here's last week's five part series on CA's neocom problem:

http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinio...a-failed-state

Our federal government and CA's state government share the same problem. Too many overpaid and over-benefited government workers.

[tegator80]

Not sure I will read all of the series but I don't doubt that they have screwed themselves royally. The only problem is that they are a major portion of our economy and when they get a cold we all sneeze.

[G8trGr8t]

Yes but they do have a magic bullet left.

The Monterrey shale contains more oil than the bakken and the eagleford combined but the geology there is tricky so they haven't figured out how to extract it. The tricky geology combined with the environmental nut jobs have kept development of this resource in check. If/when California gets the correct regulatory structure to encourage companies to invest in the developmental trial and error required to learn how to economically extract the oil they will get a ton of tax revenue that in other states is creating wealth funds but in California will be given to the public "servants".

Even gov moonbeam recognized the importance of this when he recently replaced the top regulator in California that was denying each and every drilling application for whatever reason he could think of.

15.4 BILLION barrels of recoverable oil is nothing to sneeze at.
$90 a barrel * 15.4 billion *10% (proposed extraction tax) generates $138 Billion if I got the math right. Add in all the taxes collected from all the jobs it would generate and the ripple effect and they have the answer to their problems.

http://www.businessinsider.com/calif...eserves-2013-2

The Solution To California's Problems Is Beneath Its Feet — But Rich Environmentalists Are Having None Of It

SHALE exploitation in North Dakota has lifted incomes and brought unemployment down to 3.2% of the workforce, the lowest level in the country.

Californians are rarely found looking longingly towards the Midwest. But the revelation that their state, with unemployment at 9.8% and America’s highest poverty rate, may be sitting on the largest deposit of shale oil in the continental United States has led some to wonder if their salvation lies 10,000 feet (3,000 metres) beneath them.

California has been an oil state since 1865. Thanks largely to reserves that can still be tapped by conventional means, it remains the third-largest producer in the country. Output has lately been declining by 2-3% a year, according to the state’s Energy Commission. But in 2011 the federal Energy Information Administration declared that the Monterey shale formation, which spans 1,750 square miles (450,000 hectares) in southern and central California, held 15.42 billion barrels of recoverable oil, 64% of the total estimated to be in the 48 contiguous states.

[gatordowneast]

I do quite a bit of business in CA and ask people all the time what is going on out there. Most are oblivious. They love the natural beauty, weather, lifestyle. They hate the traffic. They are absolutely clueless as to the politics that have caused the mess and could care less about voting to clean it up. As long as the state does not split and fall into the sea, they're cool with it. It's like the entire state has been smoking dope so long they just don't give a damn.

By not paying attention or giving a damn it is their problem.

[Dreamliner]

Having spent some time out there recently, it's no mystery to me why people are happy to just scrape by for the privilege to live there.

[GuyWhiteyCorngood]

Originally Posted by Dreamliner

Having spent some time out there recently, it's no mystery to me why people are happy to just scrape by for the privilege to live there.

It's much better to judge when you've never been there.

[GatorAbe7]

Originally Posted by Dreamliner

Having spent some time out there recently, it's no mystery to me why people are happy to just scrape by for the privilege to live there.

Having agreed with plenty of your recent thoughts on California, do you think visiting cultivates a better image than living there? Since 2007 I've visited either San Diego or LA metro many times - for work, bowl games, brother's Marine boot camp, reunions, weekend beach camping, road trips, bar hopping on Santa Monica, etc. But it's just a playland for me; I think I'd have a lesser opinion if I had to live there daily. Traffic is the worst in the country, the democratic super-majorities have way too much power over day-to-day living, everything costs much more, the homeless are more aggressive and rude than what I've seen on the east coast, state taxes keep rising, and car registration & fees are through the rough.

Having lived in Phoenix and Tucson I had the best of both worlds in the sense I had midwestern rent rates, food prices, could save some money, etc and could get the most out of California on long weekends with a six hour drive into LA metro.

[Dreamliner]

Originally Posted by GatorAbe7

Having agreed with plenty of your recent thoughts on California, do you think visiting cultivates a better image than living there? Since 2007 I've visited either San Diego or LA metro many times - for work, bowl games, brother's Marine boot camp, reunions, weekend beach camping, road trips, bar hopping on Santa Monica, etc. But it's just a playland for me; I think I'd have a lesser opinion if I had to live there daily. Traffic is the worst in the country, the democratic super-majorities have way too much power over day-to-day living, everything costs much more, the homeless are more aggressive and rude than what I've seen on the east coast, state taxes keep rising, and car registration & fees are through the rough.

Having lived in Phoenix and Tucson I had the best of both worlds in the sense I had midwestern rent rates, food prices, could save some money, etc and could get the most out of California on long weekends with a six hour drive into LA metro.

Well, to be honest, I explored LA from the comfy confines of a $400 a night boutique hotel, in Santa Monica, two blocks from the beach. I could look out the window and see mountains seemingly rising from the ocean.

While there, I pondered that I was a six-hour drive from San Francisco, an eight-hour drive from the Grand Canyon, a two-hour drive from the highest and lowest elevations in the Continental US, and within one-hour of either surfing or snow skiing.

Weather was brisk while there. I didn't have a job to report to while there. And while there, I was offered the opportunity to rent a tiny studio apartment, just blocks from the Rose Bowl, for $300 a month. Granted, an interim measure.

Next, the flipside ...

[Dreamliner]

... understanding that fitness would take awhile to unfold, if ever, I was obligated to look for temporary work. So, given my experience in sales, I interviewed with a telemarketing firm and two alarm companies (only two that I knew about that were hiring and even ADT has a hiring freeze in California).

Telemarketing firm offered me a job on the spot ... for $8 an hour.

Both alarm companies offered me a job ... commissions only. Also: LAPD charges $159 a poke to respond to a residential alarm call.

An Orlando businessman and good friend referred me to nine contacts of his in the area ... six are currently unemployed. One of them is a film producer who shares the house of his deceased father with his three brothers.

Granted, I haven't looked for jobs extensively, but I can't pull the trigger based on opportunities that have availed themselves.

Meanwhile ...

[Dreamliner]

... fate has seemingly intervened. A very old friend of mine wants me to come live with her in Charlotte. She lives about 45 minutes from downtown but pays $450 a month for the house she lives in.

My share of rent/utilities/TV/internet would be $325 a month.

Based on the little bit of job-hunting I did in LA, and the little bit I've done in Charlotte, wages are actually higher in Charlotte, and of course cost-of-living is MUCH lower.

Do I find Charlotte exhilarating as I do LA ? No. Do I like Charlotte ? Yes. Is Charlotte more impressive than Orlando ? Yes. Are the mountains an hour away ? Yes.

Current plan: use Charlotte as springboard for LA if yearning for LA persists.

Potential Win-Win: grow to love Charlotte, make good money and LA is still a cheap vacation. I could fly Virgin round-trip, for under $300, stay with my sister while out there. Only expense: rental car and some food.

[gatorman_07732]

I always thought thought those people tawked funny in Cali.

[Dreamliner]

Originally Posted by G8trGr8t

Yes but they do have a magic bullet left.

The Monterrey shale contains more oil than the bakken and the eagleford combined but the geology there is tricky so they haven't figured out how to extract it. The tricky geology combined with the environmental nut jobs have kept development of this resource in check. If/when California gets the correct regulatory structure to encourage companies to invest in the developmental trial and error required to learn how to economically extract the oil they will get a ton of tax revenue that in other states is creating wealth funds but in California will be given to the public "servants".

Even gov moonbeam recognized the importance of this when he recently replaced the top regulator in California that was denying each and every drilling application for whatever reason he could think of.

15.4 BILLION barrels of recoverable oil is nothing to sneeze at.
$90 a barrel * 15.4 billion *10% (proposed extraction tax) generates $138 Billion if I got the math right. Add in all the taxes collected from all the jobs it would generate and the ripple effect and they have the answer to their problems.

http://www.businessinsider.com/calif...eserves-2013-2

Read recently that even though Gov. Moonbeam wants to tap into this that the environmentalists are so entrenched that California will likely be unable to seize this golden opportunity.

Also, it's not the wealthy who are leaving California. They have money and so are insulated from the vagaries of economy and malfeasance. Rather, it is the poor and middle-class who are abandoning the state.

[GatorAbe7]

Originally Posted by Dreamliner

Read recently that even though Gov. Moonbeam wants to tap into this that the environmentalists are so entrenched that California will likely be unable to seize this golden opportunity.

Also, it's not the wealthy who are leaving California. They have money and so are insulated from the vagaries of economy and malfeasance. Rather, it is the poor and middle-class who are abandoning the state.

Heard this as well through various radio reports approaching the subject in different ways. One interviewed couples who had left to places like Colorado, Arizona, Texas, & South Carolina where there combined 150K-250K incomes moved them from the scraping-along lower middle class lives to lower higher class status with homes double the square footage.

[Dreamliner]

Originally Posted by GatorAbe7

Heard this as well through various radio reports approaching the subject in different ways. One interviewed couples who had left to places like Colorado, Arizona, Texas, & South Carolina where there combined 150K-250K incomes moved them from the scraping-along lower middle class lives to lower higher class status with homes double the square footage.

The thing that shocked me is that wages are not higher in LA, at least based on what I learned. My sister is a graphic design artist out there, a very good one at that. At one time she was designing websites for aspiring child actors.

Yet, she scrapes by at about 40K. That and her partner's similar income enable them rent a tiny apartment above a garage.

BUT, my sister maintains she wouldn't want to live anywhere else. Now, part of that may be due to cultural considerations. She's gay and a liberal.

[AzCatFan]

The California exodus really happened in mass in the mid 1990's. People who bought homes in California in the 1960's through mid 1980's could sell, then buy a house 3X the size in Arizona for half the cost they sold. Lots of "McMansions" in the Phoenix and Tucson suburbs built in the mid 90's through the early 2000's. Many of which sit empty today, as they are literally worth 1/2 of what they sold for in 2006/07.

California is tough for the middle class. And you have to love it to stay there. But it is an amazing state with something for everyone.

[mastoidbone]

Great state if you are a govt worker (avg pension is 70k), very poor, or very rich.
Sucks for everyone else.

[Dreamliner]

Correct, and if you're poor, raging costs and out-of-control regulations can work to your advantage. Basically, everybody out there is renting rooms to defray costs. Also, based on recent legislation, if you have a satisfactory driving record and don't make in excess of 250% of poverty rate (around 27K), auto insurers cannot charge you over $350 annually.

[GatorAbe7]

Originally Posted by Dreamliner

if you have a satisfactory driving record and don't make in excess of 250% of poverty rate (around 27K), auto insurers cannot charge you over $350 annually.

Really?!?! So is this another trick that comes back on the middle class? If the insurance companies are forced to lower rates for one group, won't they inch up rates for another? Vehicle registration fees in CA are through the roof.

[Dreamliner]

Originally Posted by GatorAbe7

Really?!?! So is this another trick that comes back on the middle class? If the insurance companies are forced to lower rates for one group, won't they inch up rates for another? Vehicle registration fees in CA are through the roof.

I think you could argue that California is attacking and waging war on its middle-class. In a sense, people like my sister who say "But I wouldn't live anywhere else" are saying "Even though millions of Californians despise me, I wouldn't want to live anywhere else."

I forgot to ask my sister how much she pays for auto insurance. I know she pays about $500 a month for health insurance.

Oh yeah, I was told I'd have to have my car smog inspected within ten days. Funny how you'll be driving along and see "Smog Inspection Center."