October, 2020, Part 7, Political Class Insanity: Bad Political Priorities In California, Democrats Corner the Market On High Murder Rate Cities, and the California Financial Death Spiral Continues

It is the beginning of another month which means it is time again to review the latest political class insanity from the American political class. Each month it takes us multiple posts to cover the wasteful spending, incompetent government organizations and employees, government programs that usually make a problem worse than resolving it, inane and idiotic politician comments, etc.

To review past posts on this insanity and idiocy, just click on the first few posts in each month listed to the right of this page. After reviewing just a handful of these insanity posts we think you will agree that we are currently being served by the worst set of American politicians ever to hold office in our entire history.

1) We have often and recently pointed out what a terrible place California is becoming:

• The unfunded liabilities of the state government is skyrocketing.
• The state and local tax levels are among the highest in the country.
• There is a massive homelessness problem throughout the state.
• Out migration of state residents heading out of state to other places to live is among the highest in the country.
• The state has one of the highest poverty levels in the country.
• The state’s public schools generally do a horrible job educating the kids in the state.
• Faulty state government emphasis on renewable energy sources has resulted in regularly occurring rolling blackouts of electricity and electric rates that are, on average, 55% higher than the rest of the country.
• Wild fires have burned out millions of acres in the state because of stupid government regulations on forest management.
• The state’s physical infrastructure is collapsing.
• The state, like every other state, has been fighting the coronavirus for months.

Given these dire problems facing the state's residents, one would have thought that the state’s governor and other politicians would be laser focused on addressing and resolving these issues. But alas, you hopes would be wrong:

• From the beginning of time, California prison inmates were separately based on their birth gender, males and females.
• But the state politicians decided to work on and actually enact legislation that will allow prison inmates to choose their gender and it does not have to be just male or female, it can be transgender, intersex, or nonbinary.
• After they decide, what out of a multitude of genders they want to be, the state will separate the prisoners via their announced gender which, again, is not restricted to male and female.
• The law also requires prisoners to be called by their preferred pronouns, which again, is not restricted to simply he or she.
• Despite state government budget shortages, this law will obviously require money be spent to build facilities for more sex designations.

High taxes, unfunded government liabilities, forest fires everywhere, high crime, low educational system performance, etc. and these state politicians spend time, energy and resources on a prisoner gender identity bill.

2) I could have included the following discussion in one of our “by the numbers” posts but lets do it here:

• We have always viewed every segment of the American political class as being inhabited by people that are not that smart, brave, or effective in doing their jobs.
• Democratic Congressman Hank Johnson once worried that the island of Guam could tip over in the Pacific Ocean, Democratic Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee thinks the Constitution is over 400 years old and that two distinct Vietnams still exist with North Vietnam ruling South Vietnam, and Democratic Congresswoman Alexnadria Ocasio-Cortez who provides a never ending array of ignorance.
• But when it comes to being safe in a city, it is pretty clear that you probably do not want to be a city operated by the Democrats.
• According to a New York Times report, 18 of the top 20 cities in the country, when it comes to homicides, are run by Democratic mayors.
• The top 13 cities with the most homicides are run by Democrats.
• Only Miami (#14) and Tulsa (#18) are among the top U.S. cities not run by Democrats when it comes to murder rates.

Correlation is not causation (i.e. having a Democratic mayor results in a high murder rate city) but it may be a good thing to avoid cities run by Democrats if you want to stay alive, the numbers don't lie.

3) We recently talked about how famous podcaster Joe Rogan was leaving high tax California and taking his operation to low tax Texas. Mr. Rogan has recently signed a $100 million deal and by moving out of Los Angeles to Texas he immediately saves about $13 million, the amount he would have paid in California state income taxes since the state of Texas doesn't have a state income tax.

We have often discussed the reality that hard working, tax paying state residents are fleeing high tax states for lower tax states with Mr Rogan probably being the most prominent person to do so. But we know that moving companies cannot get their hands on enough moving to satisfy the out migration of NYC residents out of the city. 

I believe it is a basic human drive to want to live as free as possible. But when the state’s politicians start taking more and more of your hard earned wages and offering very little in return, people decide that economic freedom from high taxation requires them to take action to preserve whatever economic freedom they can garner.

Ben Shapiro is a famous conservative commentator and pundit. He recently announced that he is also leaving his home state of California, mostly driven by the higher and higher levels of taxation with little incremental benefit in return. He described the reason why in a recent article on his website:

• Mr. Shapiro is a true Californian, having lived there most of his life.
• He was born in Burbank, California, went to college in Los Angeles at UCLA, founded his media company in the state, met his wife in the state, and his three kids were born in the state.
• He believes California is the most beautiful state in the union, the state climate is great, the scenery is breathtaking, and there is so much to do.
• And yet he is moving his family and business out of the state.
• Some of his reasons include: “We’re leaving because all the benefits of California have steadily eroded — and then suddenly collapsed. Meanwhile, all the costs of California have steadily increased — and then suddenly skyrocketed.”
• Like we have said about California (and Illinois, New York and New Jersey) the financial death spiral has started, which is what Mr. Shapiro describes using a medical analogy: “It can be difficult to spot the incremental encroachment of a terrible disease, but once the final ravages set in, it becomes obvious that the illness is fatal. So, too, with California, where bad governance has turned a would-be paradise into a burgeoning dystopia.”
• He points out that the homeless population in Los Angeles County alone has gone from less than 40,000 in 2011 to 66,000 today, an over 50% increase.
• This has resulted in homeless encampments and resultant trash in every neighborhood in the county.
• But homelessness is not the only quality of life issue: “The most beautiful areas of Los Angeles, from Santa Monica beach to my suburb, have become wrecks. My children have personally witnessed drug use, public urination and public nudity. Looters were allowed free reign in the middle of the city during the Black Lives Matter riots; Rodeo Drive was closed at 1 p.m., and citizens were curfewed at 6 p.m.”
• As crime has gone up the funding for police forces has gone down.
• He also points out the same reason why Mr. Rogan left: the top state income tax rate is 13.3% and the state politicians want to raise that retroactively to 16.8%.
• The state also has a 7.5% sales tax and high gas taxes.
• According to a survey of 650 business CEOs, California is the worst state in the union to do business.
• Out migration has risen for the past seven years as people flee the ill run state which taxes high and provides low quality government services in return.
• And finally: “I want my kids to grow up safe. I want them to grow up in a community with a future, with more freedom and safety than I grew up with. California makes that impossible. So, goodbye, Golden State. Thanks for the memories.”

This is what happens when the political class gets too big, too greedy, and proves that they have neither the brainpower, the courage, or wisdom to operate oversized, malfunctioning government operations. People want to be free and when that becomes too much of a hassle or impossible where they live, they move, be it out of California, or out of NYC, be it rich or middle class, people want to be free.

California, Illinois, New York and New Jersey are the canaries in the mine. They have started their descent into a financial and quality of life death spiral. Learn from them or we all will be living the nightmare that is California: high taxes, low quality government services, loss of freedom, high crime, bad schools, poverty and homelessness, and violence, etc.

So, we have bad priorities in a distressed state, California, it looks like Democrats operate the top murder cities in the country, and the famous and not so famous continue to abandon the sinking ship that is California.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=loce+my+country%2C+loathe+my+government&ref=nb_sb_noss

Please visit the following sites for freedom:


http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w