One governed by people who believe they are really good at governing, the other governed by people who would rather be out hunting of fishing – Michael Barone has an excellent article contrasting the miserably failed State of California and the stunningly successful State of Texas, here’s one of many points:
…From 2000 to 2009, the Census Bureau estimates, there has been a domestic outflow of 1,509,000 people from California — almost as many as the number of immigrants coming in. Population growth has not been above the national average and, for the first time in history, it appears that California will gain no House seats or electoral votes from the reapportionment following the 2010 census…
…Americans have been voting for Texas with their feet. From 2000 to 2009, some 848,000 people moved from other parts of the United States to Texas, about the same number as moved in from abroad. That inflow has continued in 2008-09, in which 143,000 Americans moved into Texas, more than double the number in any other state, at the same time as 98,000 were moving out of California. Texas is on the way to gain four additional House seats and electoral votes in the 2010 reapportionment…
Another point in the article is that California’s legislature meet year-round, while Texas is only burdened with such 90 days every other year. Texas is a State which has a government – California is a government which has a State.
I don’t know how California gets out of the mess – my bet is that the 1.5 million who left are of the conservative, will-work-for-money mindset. This means that those remaining are ever more likely to see government as the answer – whether its as a welfare distributor or as a path to personal riches via government employment. Meanwhile, the very rich who infect Los Angeles and San Francisco will continue to vote liberal because behind their gated communities and in their enclaves of wealth and privilege, California is still going great. There is a chance of revolution in California this year – and if Californians don’t take it, I think the Golden State is doomed.
Meanwhile, out here in Nevada one of our goals is not to become “Californicated”…naturally, our liberals are starting to say that the cure for our own budget woes is a round of tax increases…including, of course, the imposition of a State income tax. This sort of thing proves liberals are impervious to reason.
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