Will California Become America’s First Failed State?
October 4th, 2009Via: Guardian:
Los Angeles, 2009: California may be the eighth largest economy in the world, but its state staff are being paid in IOUs, unemployment is at its highest in 70 years, and teachers are on hunger strike. So what has gone so catastrophically wrong?
California has a special place in the American psyche. It is the Golden State: a playground of the rich and famous with perfect weather. It symbolises a lifestyle of sunshine, swimming pools and the Hollywood dream factory.
But the state that was once held up as the epitome of the boundless opportunities of America has collapsed. From its politics to its economy to its environment and way of life, California is like a patient on life support. At the start of summer the state government was so deeply in debt that it began to issue IOUs instead of wages. Its unemployment rate has soared to more than 12%, the highest figure in 70 years. Desperate to pay off a crippling budget deficit, California is slashing spending in education and healthcare, laying off vast numbers of workers and forcing others to take unpaid leave. In a state made up of sprawling suburbs the collapse of the housing bubble has impoverished millions and kicked tens of thousands of families out of their homes. Its political system is locked in paralysis and the two-term rule of former movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger is seen as a disaster – his approval ratings having sunk to levels that would make George W Bush blush. The crisis is so deep that Professor Kenneth Starr, who has written an acclaimed history of the state, recently declared: “California is on the verge of becoming the first failed state in America.”
this article in the guardian is a good summary.
i am about halfway through reading it.
i wondered if Kevin would have it up yet…
sure enough!
ok, i finished reading the article.
the last third of it is…weak.
but the first two-thirds does provide an overview of how fcuked the state is. unfortunately, it only offers the vaguest hints as to how they ended up in So-Cal Hell.
Ive just had time to read the lead on this article and am so depressed and well, angry. Where have we heard this before? Have a leader installed that will work the Master Plan? hmph. GWB and Ahnold, both “elected officials” take country and state into the toilet. Both denying any all responsibility.
But that is not what depresses me. What does is that California is the “role model,” or has been in public policy for many decades here in the U.S.
I guess not only in California flucked, the rest of us here in the U.S. are too.
Ken Lay.