Thursday, March 05, 2009


California Suicides
The Good:
California is by nature the most richly endowed region in the world. Nowhere else is there so much fertile land, watered by gravity-fed winter runoff from the majestic Sierra. California has ample supplies of oil and natural gas. Millions of acres of timber abound in its coastal and mountain forests. Temperate climate and weather allow outdoor activity almost year round. The coastline is over 1,300 miles long — with two of the great natural ports of the world at Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay.

The bad:
But less discussed is the underlying culprit: a weird sort of utopian mindset. Perhaps because have-it-all Californians live in such a rich natural landscape and inherited so much from their ancestors, they have convinced themselves that perpetual bounty is now their birthright — not something that can be lost in a generation of complacency.
...
In short, after Californians sue, restrict, mandate, obstruct, and lecture, they also get angry that there is suddenly not enough food, fuel, water, and money to act like the gods that they think they have become.

Personally, I think it is more fundamental. The productive class has been outvoted by the consumptive class for decades.

Hat tip to PV for calling this article to our attention.

6 comments:

Casey Serin said...

California [...] leading the nation in fresh fruit, vegetable, nut, and dairy production.

Yes, it's true Robbo.

I'm one of California's many fruits, and you're one of their nuts. ;-)

Peripheral Visionary said...

I thought you'd be interested in the article. For what it's worth, this does not come from a disinterested observer; I am actually a native Californian, and it pains me to see the abyss it is descending into. Like Mexico, except that at least Mexico has no delusions of grandeur.

Granted, California was no utopia when I grew up in it; even by the 70's it had descended into crime, corruption, and decay. But back then there were still echoes of the "old California", that recalled a time when California was as close to utopia as the U.S. is likely to get. But that was a long, long time ago, and not likely to come back soon.

I no longer live there, and I don't know what the solutions to California's problems are. But might I recommend one course of action: evict all the politicians from office. For those who cannot stomach the thought of voting for the other party, vote for the challenger in the primary. It's time for California to hit the reset button.

Peripheral Visionary said...

P.S. And the subtext, of course, is "As goes California, so goes the rest of the nation . . . " (Let's hope not, but it certainly is looking like it)

H Simpson said...

Relax

this is all a scam the get voters to change.


Many years ago California found a way to take the abundent water and fertile land and build ugly houses with fountains from which to film grade B porm movies.

But that land can always be retilled and made valuable. The trick is to have enough pain with no apparent way out of the situation so that the brilliant idea to grow pot as a cash crop becomes a reality. Lets face it, Nev has the casinos and whores tied up. The Golden states needs something new.

Growing it locally would also cut out the need to sneak in imported dope from Mexico which will reduce the violence at the border. And filling those unused pools with quality earth is more profitable then koi ponds.

hence a push to legalize and grow dope. Sounds like a terrible idea, but so did casinos in so many states many years ago.
Enough pain and it starts to sound good, even if really doesn't make sense.

You heard it here first. Cannot wait to see the ads they run instead of California cheese. Cheech and Chong actting like the Gallo Brothers...

w said...

Casey,

You are more like a tomato. Some people think you are a fruit, others think you are a vegetable.

Steve Sailer said...

By the way, LA isn't a natural harbors. It's all breakwaters. When Richard Henry Dana came to California in a sailing ship from Boston in the 1830s, the best harbor was San Diego and Monterey was okay. Trading with Angelenos was difficult because they'd have to land small boats on a beach.

The San Francisco Bay Area was almost uninhabited in the 1830s and Dana's bestseller "Two Years Before the Mast" broadly hinted that enterprising Americans could make better use of the world's finest harbor than the lackadaisical Spanish-speaking squires of California.