Could America Survive Without California?

 For years I have been listening to various asshats tell me that California produces more tax revenue than it receives. I have also read where California believes they are the 4th or 5th biggest economy in the world. So as Gavin Newsome aka the clown prince of Sacramento, trades barbs with President Trump- you have to wonder...could we live without California?

California has the tech industry and Silicon Valley. It has the film industry and Hollywood. But most importantly, California has a fantastic agricultural economy. They grow everything from soup to nuts in one of the most fertile, temperate climates in the world. California has fantastic weather, miles and miles of beautiful beaches, and the Pacific Ocean. It has nice people as well. We conservatives tend to throw out the baby with the bathwater when discussing the oppressive liberal politics that strangle the state. We think everyone is a liberal in California and that simply isn't true. I know many conservative people, more conservative than myself, who have fled California.

Let's agree to one other thing. It is California's great weather, beaches, and the ocean that people love. That is why so many corporations and people have moved there. It is quality of life. 

Nobody moved to California for the great governance. In fact, California boasts a list of idiot politicians like no other state. Waters, Pelosi, Schiff, Harris, Newsome. You have to look awfully hard to find a cadre of dipshits worse than that list. I can't imagine anyone saying, "Man I love those California politicians- let's move there!"

For the record, I briefly lived in Santa Ynez. It was a wonderful place, with wonderful people (many conservatives) but the cost of living was atrocious. Santa Ynez has no water. Water bills approaching 1000 per month are not unheard of and the residential rate in Santa Barbara for water, sewer, and trash is 254.00 per month.

So California has three giant industries, which are more or less, there because of the beauty and the weather. Two of them, tech and the movie industry, could easily be relocated. The agricultural industry, the one that feeds many of us, cannot be readily moved or relocated. It is mostly dependent on the weather, soil, and water California naturally has.

So just how much tax revenue does California send into the federal government compared to what they get back? While it is true that California provides a little excess revenue, it is not that much. I chose a couple of normal, or non covid years to make comparisons. In 2019, what California sent in was maybe 4% more than they received. You can play with this map and see all of the liberal states which love to tax and redistribute their citizens income. Balance of Payments Portal | Rockefeller Institute of Government

Can we live without Hollywood? Yes. Can we live without technology from Silicon Valley? Probably not. Can we live without the food California grows? No.

I used to love California. That was back in the Reagan days- maybe Schwarzenegger days. Now it has become a taxing, regulatory, expensive nightmare. Traffic is horrible, the roads are horrible, crime and homelessness are mired in the cities. The cost of everything is terrible. Insurance rates, utility rates, medical procedures, just the cost of doing business with all the government red tape and skim. In short, California has become noncompetitive. The only thing they produce better than anyone else is red tape and tax skim. They are very good at that.

I don't know how you turn around a Frankenstein government like California's. The six richest families, folks like the Gettys, understand that to keep the hoi polloi from stringing them up- you must keep the free shit army well fed, medicated, and pretend to care about them. This is accomplished by marching a few political stooges out there to administer your survival politics and make someone else pay for it. This is the role of folks like Pelosi and Newsome.

Could America live without California? I wouldn't want to. But we could sure live without all of those assholes who are currently running things.