The Truth About California

The only way to truly expereince what california offers is to live there--once you ve lived there everything else pales. The reason for progress is progressive thinking - India and china would still be the same if the thinking didnt change to improve and do what they r doing. There is a reason silicon valley exists in California - not in Canada, not in mexico, not in mid west with cheap land, not in the good ol' racist south. Its the thinking and dont forget midwest agri is all subsidised by silicon valley tax dollars.
 
Quote from GTG:

I remember reading that at one point in the 1960's, the part of the United States now called the "Rust Belt" used to product greater than 60% (I think I'm being conservative here. I think the number might have been higher than this.) of the manufactured goods in the world. This region continued to be a manufacturing powerhouse for a very long time after its peak, but it was like ~20 years later that the area became the "rust belt".

Maybe California is on a similar trajectory? Maybe we peaked say in 2000 or later in 2006? What California has been good at producing in recent decades is intellectual property resulting in innovative new companies such as Qualcomm, and Google, etc. Does it seem like the rate of innovative new companies that are being formed in California is higher or lower than the past? It seems like the rate of small software company start-ups getting formed that might make their founders a few million dollars may be higher than it was in the past...but where are the IPO's that will make billionaires out of their founders and many of their employees like we used to see in the past? Maybe Twitter or Facebook someday? Perhaps, but Twitter and facebook just don't seem to me to be actually creating as much "real" value for the economy as the type of companies we used to see coming out of California a decade or more ago. (Granted there were also a lot more complete bullshit IPO's a decade ago as well....)
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In 1983 there were 13 billionaires. 26 years later in 2009 there were 793 billionaires. Billionaires are increasing, not decreasing.
 
Quote from peilthetraveler:

In 1983 there were 13 billionaires. 26 years later in 2009 there were 793 billionaires. Billionaires are increasing, not decreasing.
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Yes, but dollars are increasing in quantity as well, while the value of each dollar is decreasing. That's why USD is trading near 15 year lows against JPY and nearly at parity with AUD.
 
Quote from GTG:

but where are the IPO's that will make billionaires out of their founders and many of their employees like we used to see in the past?
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It's a good thing that these new startups don't need the dirty money from wall st. America is where it is at, because all it's corporations sold itself to wall st. and look at what happens, everything gets transferred outside the country all for GROWTH for the next QTR.

Main St. and Wall St. should be parallel streets never intersecting, the second they meet.... shit happens (most of the time). :p
 
If California is such a damn hotspot of economic activity, how come they pay people in IOUs? You can dance around the numbers all you'd like, but income is a lot less than expenditures for this state and they have not been able to either cut spending or raise income.

You could have every dime of VC money on the planet and a standard of living that makes Trump look like a chump but if outgoes are more than incomes and you can't fix it, then you are screwed.

It's not rocket science. It's hardly even basic econ.
 
Quote from TGregg:

If California is such a damn hotspot of economic activity, how come they pay people in IOUs? You can dance around the numbers all you'd like, but income is a lot less than expenditures for this state and they have not been able to either cut spending or raise income.

You could have every dime of VC money on the planet and a standard of living that makes Trump look like a chump but if outgoes are more than incomes and you can't fix it, then you are screwed.

It's not rocket science. It's hardly even basic econ.
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"It's not rocket science. It's hardly even basic econ."

correct. but it takes some of us years to see and then more years to accept. in argentina the provinces paid in IOUs. the central government tried to bail out the provinces and the currency and the economy collapsed. as yogi berra said it is deja vu all over again.
 
If unfunded pension liabilities are 7% of California's GDP and the state of California collects taxes at around 14% of GDP, then half of all tax revenue will be needed to pay these liabilities. That's not good.
 
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