by Jack Lee
News flash….California has more than its share of miserable cites! Eight out of the twenty most miserable cities in America are in our fair state. This includes the most miserable city in America says Forbes magazine for 2011.
And the winner is: Stockton! It’s America’s #1 most miserable city. Its housing is a total bust with an almost 68% price drop from the high of 2005. Right now you can buy a $431k home now for a mere $147k, but don’t do it, prices are still falling. According to Economy.com, Foreclosures are 7th highest in the US according to RealtyTrac.
Stockton’s violent crime and unemployment rank among the top 10 worst in the country, and unemployment is expected to rise to 18.1% in 2011 according to Economy.com.
California cities take 3rd, 4th and 5th and they are in order Merced, Modesto and Sacramento. Each has struggled with the same ills as Stockton. Falling home prices, high unemployment and high crime rates and then we have major additional problems like high sales and income taxes, service cuts and budget shortfalls. California has never looked less like the golden state.
There are reasons why California is in trouble and it’s the same reason Stockton is in trouble, care to guess what it is? These are places in control by democrats, and the other common thread is, too many cases dysfunctional internal politics, unusual union influence, political corruption, mis-allocation of resources, high taxation, over regulation and. . . a strong democrat voter base!
The cities named in the US also have something else in common, they strongly embrace the leftist form of multiculturalism, that is, encouraging living side by side as separate equals vying for their own culture, as opposed to joining the great melting pot society and endorsing that idealism. Segregated societies, no matter how much we embrace them, will eventually lead to a fractured and weakened society as a whole.
The next set of problems are:
Wealth shifting – The leftist concept of taxing and spending to shift the wealth has never worked anywhere in history. Democrats have staked their careers on wealth shifting.
Election dominance – Electing a vast majority from only one party eliminates those checks and balances that founded our republic. Why would you think this is ever okay?
Exclusive Minority Representation: Electing public servants into high office with an agenda to support one particular ethnic agenda over the needs of the community and the state is blatantly wrong – yet we do it all the time.
And here’s the kicker. This is the root of all evil in a democracy and why we have dead broke states with sucky cities: When you have virtually unchecked immigration that pulls in the poor and uneducated and you also have a government that caters to the welfare sub-society, you’ll get voters that tend to be poorly informed that have a narrow focus on self interests. It’s called lowering the bar and brother have we ever lowered the bar – the bar is looking to me more like underground cable.
News flash two, Jack. The politicians have allocated 4.3 billion dollars to build a high-speed bullet train from Fresno to Corcoran. The only trouble is, no one in Fresno wants to go to Corcoran, where there is nothing but a prison, with the inmates comprising half the city’s population. It is a classic boondogle: The Railway from Nowhere to Nowhere.
The conclusion is simplistic, Jack.
The mayor of the #2 city is a Republican. There are ALL kinds of factors involved here. Inappropriately blaming it on one political party is inflammatory and spreads ignorance.
Ignorance will destroy America.
Correction: Ignorance is destroying America.
I can only conclude you want that, as we have been over this before, AND you have agreed with me that ignorance is bad for America.
Reading the post, one might conclude that Democrats were also soley responsible for the problems caused by illegal immigration.
This is not the case. We both know that, too.
The problems of illegal immigration wil NOT get fixed by spreading misinformation. It MIGHT get fixed with the truth, but only if folks are willing to speak the truth.
Is it so important to have something posted every day, that you have to cut & paste inflammatory BS that is actually BAD for us?
I don’t get it.
Jack: “Wealth shifting – The leftist concept of taxing and spending to shift the wealth has never worked anywhere in history. Democrats have staked their careers on wealth shifting.”
And how does the totally clueless elitist left leadership spend that tax the rich cash in a jobless, choking and suffocating economy? On a brand new elitist toy…of course! This is apparent in the childlike glee of the President, “Imagine whisking through towns at speeds over 100 miles an hour”.
Cooool, sir!
The choice to begin in the middle of nowhere with this bullet boondockle in California marks a plan to intimidate completion of the project. What a stupid, thoughtless indulgence. (If the “rich” thought a bullet train woould pay for itself in the long run they’d have done it themselves years ago!)
Baaaaagh!
Q: “I don’t get it.”
The only true statement in your miserable, pointless comment.
Jacks post is not about “blaming democrats”. That is an overly simplistic, inaccurate and boring assessment.
Jacks point is that policies that rely on wealth redistribution DO NOT WORK. It so happens that wealth redistribution is a policy that Democrats embrace and promote as a winning solution to problems. The other major party, Republican, does not embrace this position but instead attempts to refute it.
You might argue that in the messy real world of governance both parties have participated in movcing toward bigger government. I would agree. It’s a lot harder to sell personal responsibility than it is to promise “free” goodies to the public.
You might argue that other factors also played a part but you haven’t so until you do give it a rest.
Jack intent and purpose is to educate about the downside of big government and wealth redistribution policies at a time when we are experiencing the ugly result. The personal misery embedded in this situation makes it a lot easier to cut through the BS that Democrats put out so that people can evaluate the situation themselves.
Soaps, this is the way we do things in California, we’re lucky it goes to some place even if we don’t want to go there.
Quentin, I didn’t post the number two city, I posted the cities relevant to what I was talking about and the state of course and those places are bastions of leftist democrats. I was just trying to lay out the situation as it is, letting those who caused it live with it. As for the number 2 city, I don’t know what their city council make-up is, but its probably democrat. Do you know?
Jack wrote: “When you have virtually unchecked immigration that pulls in the poor and uneducated and you also have a government that caters to the welfare sub-society, you’ll get voters that tend to be poorly informed that have a narrow focus on self interests.”
Remember how legislative districts are drawn? Unchecked immigration loads up the districts with non-voters. The people that make their living providing welfare are the Democratic constituency. Most recipients don’t register to vote even if they are eligible.
Gruendl looked out into the faces of a minority population seldom seen at city council meetings. And said he saw “the engine of our economic future.” Consider his point view. Pulling down $110k a year as a County Welfare Director. Business is BOOMING.