I wrote this in 2016 during the presidential campaign. I am taking this blog out for a spin, don’t have time to write something new, so here we go…enjoy…
One of the things that many people show themselves to be seriously misinformed about is the value of California. People smugly support “Calexit” because they like believing in asinine stereotypes. California is, arguably, the greatest state in the nation. Ok. Not “arguable.” It is. We all know that. All 50 have some amazing, and unusual, endemic features. We have the most. That doesn’t make us better people. We’re just damn fortunate to live here. Except for the traffic. The traffic sucks. So do the people who move here who call it “Cali” and conform to the stereotype. Anyway….here is a partial list of reasons why people are amazingly wrong about this.
First the myth that somehow CA doesn’t pay its fair share. Californians get back about 78% of every dollar we send to the Federal government. In 2014 Pew found that we were 41st per capita in terms of Federal spending.
We are the world’s 7th largest economy. It’s roughly the same size as Brazil’s. In 2015 we, not Texas, created the most jobs in the country (we also have a “lone star” on our flag because we were also a republic-sorry Tejas-you are still one of my favorite all time states though). In 2016 we added 483,000 jobs. That’s more than numbers two and three, Florida and Texas, combined.
Four of the largest companies in the WORLD are based here. That includes the one you are doing business with at this very second. The largest bank in the world is also based here.
Do you like almonds, apricots, dates, figs, kiwi, nectarines, olives, pistachios, prunes and walnuts? We produce all of the country’s supplies of each. Our agricultural GDP is $37.7 billion. Iowa’s is a massive…wait for it…$21.1 billion. There goes the myth that all of the nation’s food comes from the Midwest. We make damn good wine too and that’s also a multi-billion dollar business.
President Trump LOVES to talk about making stuff in America. We make $255.6 billion of it. More than any other state. Number two is Texas with a measly $239.1 billion. Sorry again Midwest.
Our unemployment rate is higher than the rest of the country, but it’s dropping. We always come back (because our economy is so huge) and our jobless rate is falling faster than the rest of the country’s and per capita income is rising the fastest. That’s good…for the entire country.
We have the lowest borrowing rate of state and government debt.
I can go on. Are you still in favor of CA receding? Because, for us, it would be sad, but easily doable. The country would suffer greatly. This is an issue that many people are seriously misinformed about. Now you’re not one of them. Congratulations.
