California's Weird Utopian Mindset

Back in March, Victor Davis Hanson offered one explanation for California's Suicide, "A weird sort of utopian mindset". He expands on three observations:

First: California is by nature the most richly endowed region in the world.
Second: . . prior can-do generations of Californians created an unparalleled infrastructure . . . .
Third: . . something has gone drastically wrong in the state over the last two decades.

Just one example - "California managed to achieve all at once the nation’s highest sales and income tax rates — and yet also the largest annual state deficit. "

Read the whole thing.

". . . 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."

California may have a Republican governor right now, but he was thoroughly chastened early on by the real power in California for decades - the Democratically-controlled legislature. He ran on a fiscally-conservative, reformist platform but was hammered so hard by the Democrats that he soon joined them in their spending spree.

Both the governor and the legislature were, in turn, chastened by voters in a special election in May. All their slickly-worded, devious, misleadingly-titled propositions to continue unprecedented levels of spending were rejected by the voters. They and their allies reportedly out-spent opponents 10 to 1 in advertising. One guest on a local radio program said that the information coming out of Sacramento on these propositions was so misleading and self-serving that voters should only trust what the Legislative Analyst's office said. They had a track record of correctly predicting the fiscal impact of other ballot measures. Somehow, voters seemed to get this message.

The "weird utopian mindset" remained firmly in place in California's liberal newspapers, however.

They're even into boosterism for patience regarding the National economy, now that the Democrats are in charge. Huge headline in the Fresno Bee, June 14, 2009:

RECOVERY IN MOTION

Small subheading:
When will Valley cities replace jobs lost to the recession? It could take 2, 3 or even 4 years.

You know that if there were a Republican president, the headline would have read something like:

RECOVERY? Bleak jobs picture

As suggested from the actual text of the article. Because the bleak jobs picture would have been evidence of heartless Republican policies.

Can California count on a national bailout? Why shouldn't people in Mississippi pay for our state's bankruptcy, anyway? How many Hollywood stars live there? The drastic cuts foreseen now by politicians could take California back to about a 2005-sized government. More painful than it sounds, during a recession. But with 40% unemployment in some towns on the West Side of the valley (due to the cutoff of agricultural water by the government), a lot of folks around here are not too kindly-disposed toward the reflexive favoritism shown to government workers in California right now. The legislature always arranges things so that the government jobs cut will be the ones the public values the most.

This financial debacle is dramatically affecting our personal financial situation. And some of our friends with government jobs have taken a financial hit. But one has to look at the larger picture. And maybe this is a time when people will be receptive to hearing about the nepotism, cronyism and other corruption which have contributed so heavily to the State's financial situation. Taxpayers have been paying a lot of money to State employees who cannot or will not perform their job duties, but who are protected because they are relatives and friends of people with connections. I think of it as sort of a really lucrative "family and friends" welfare program. Sometimes one racial or ethnic group will be favored in a particular State institution. And any fellow employee or supervisor who gets in their way becomes a target or is paid off to keep silent. Pretty soon they start engaging in embezzlement and other troublesome practices, because they can. But it doesn't seem to be anyone's responsibility to correct this situation. Partly because it would be mean to enforce the rules.

A bailout of California might not be such a good idea for President Obama. Someday, somebody's going to have to bite the bullet. Anxious times here in California, and in the nation.