Political Class Insanity and Economic Ignorance: California Update

We have often discussed the reality that politicians could not be any more ignorant of economics and financial planning than if they tried. Their economic strategies, policies, and stupidity usually make economic and financial conditions worse. Their idiocy usually comes down hardest on those that can least afford bad economic policies and environments, those at the lower economic scale in this country and around the world.

Their economic policies overseas have stifled economic growth and greatly reduced economic freedoms as we discussed in the following post:

https://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2017/07/july-2017-part-4-political-class.html 

Their economic policies at the state and local government levels in this country have crippled economic development in many states and cities. Detroit and several cities in California have already essentially gone bankrupt and the state governments in Illinois, New Jersey, and California are not too far behind when it comes to economic collapse, as the following posts and discussions reveal:

https://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2017/02/people-want-to-be-freeas-do-california.html

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2017/02/februrary-2017-part-3-political-class.html

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/10/why-californias-distressed-economy-is.html

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/07/why-california-is-failing-while.html

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/07/state-level-economic-musings-california.html

And the sad thing about these posts is that they are not all of the bad news that we have previously discussed regarding stupid politicians doing stupid economic things. I just got tired of listing all of them. 

Today we will discuss AGAIN how politicians, California politicians in this case, have managed to economically and financially wreck an entire state’s current and future financial well being. The basis of this review is an article by Scott Osborn, writing for the Joe For America website on August 20, 2017, “Point Of No Return! California Faces Imminent Financial Collapse!”:

• The state of California has incurred and is now carrying a debt load of $340 billion.
• This comes out to a whopping debt load of over $8,700 for every man, woman, and child in the state.
• But that is of today, experts peg the future debt load just for the state pension system at $1 TRILLION, about three times higher than the obscene current debt burden of $340 billion: “California is a cautionary tale for taxpayers in the rest of the country. The people of California are being burdened by an unsustainable, unfunded liability – a $1 trillion dollar government pension system. At the end of the day under California law, the taxpayers will subsidize the shortfall in the budget.”
• While California has 14 million people working in private sector jobs in the state, there is almost the same amount of people (12.6) million not working and who are living on welfare benefits.
• There are 2.1 current state and local government employees but there are 1.3 million people collecting government pensions in the state.
• There are 114 people getting government benefits in the state, either by drawing a government worker check or by getting welfare, for every 100 people outside of government paying taxes to support the 114.
• And this outrageous state government debt was incurred despite the reality that California has one of the highest, if not the highest, state income tax rates in the country.
• For many working people in California, if they moved to Texas and maintained their current income level, their tax savings would enable them to buy a new car every year.
• While there are rich Californians living in Hollywood and Silicon Valley, poverty permeates the rest of the state with homeless people creating tent cities in other parts of the state and the L.A. City Council recently pleading with governor Jerry Brown ““to declare homelessness a statewide emergency“. 
• Despite the sky high taxes, the state’s infrastructure is falling apart with even the governor recognizing the fact and calling for another $100 billion to be spent to fix the infrastructure.
• In a previous post, we cited the reality that about 40% of L.A. residents are on the Medicaid roles, indicating a very low level of income for 40% of the city’s residents.
• High taxes, bad employment opportunities, high crime, bad schools etc. have resulted in a net migration out of California of about 5 million people in the past decade.
• I would assume that a high proportion of those moving out were not welfare cases but were likely highly productive, tax paying, working individuals, which if true, would put even more pressure on the state government’s tax revenue collections.
• The author cites his success in escaping California: a 25% reduction in the cost of living, a 15% decrease in income, a $2 a gallon drop in gasoline prices, and the purchase of a livable 3,200 square foot home for less than a third of the price of a comparable home in California, and no state income tax...and a new car every year if he wanted it.

Thus, only politicians can take the most beautiful piece of property in the country, have the most residents, have the most tax revenue, have the the built in, perpetual wealth of Hollywood and Silicon Valley but yet have some of the worst schools, the worst run pension systems, have the highest debt, have some of the worst public infrastructure, and the worst economic outlook of just about any state in the union. 

Economic ignorance is too tame a term to describe what the California political class has done to the state, its citizens, and its future. Let’s just hope that the cancer that is California economic ignorance can be contained before it spreads elsewhere in the country.

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:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

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

Part 5, Freedom and Liberty Guest Speaker Week, Charlie Reese: 545 People

This is our fifth post this week that uses the wise words of other Americans to identify the insanity that the political class inflicts on Americans every day and the havoc and stress it places on our democracy and liberties. Today’s piece is a rather famous essay from a Mr. Charlie Reese.

It is my understanding that Mr. Reese had a long term career as a journalist with the Orlando Sentinel and he now writes online articles. As I mentioned previously when I first published his insightful thoughts, I have tried to contact Mr. Reese but have not been successful, I hope he does not mind that I repeat his thoughts again today.

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545 PEOPLE
By Charlie Reese

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don't propose a Federal budget. The president does.

You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.

You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.

You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party. What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits. The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the Speaker of the House? Nancy Pelosi. She is the leader of the majority party. She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million can not replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.

If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red.

If the Army and Marines are in IRAQ, it's because they want them in IRAQ.

If they do not receive Social Security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.

There are no insoluble government problems.

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.

Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.

They, and they alone, have the power.

They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses.

Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees.

We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!

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Kudos Mr. Reese, he understands that all politicians are the same regardless of what political party they belong to. They need the status quo to continue for their benefit, not for the good of the country. Please consider Mr. Reese's advice: regardless of party, vote all incumbents out of office whenever possible.

How much worse could it be with new people sitting in Washington? The current crop of politicians have not solved any problems for forty years and will probably go another forty years with nothing being accomplished if we do not vote the incumbents out now.

In fact, “how much worse could it get,” is the theme of a new grass roots effort we are just getting underway, an effort that would impose term limits on all Federal politicians so that they would be “one and done” when it came to political terms in office at the Federal level. We will be discussing this new effort in detail tomorrow but you can get a head start on it by visiting the associated website, signing our petition to get the effort underway, and volunteer whatever time, skills, and effort you can lend us to make it a reality:

www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com

Because, as Mr. Reese points out, who else is going to clean up the mess that is America today unless it is us? It is now obvious that the long term politicians sitting in Washington are incapable of cleaning up the mess they created.

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:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:


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