Yes, CA has a big population and a successful past but that success is increasingly now in the past:
Since 2000, California’s job growth rate— which in the late 1970s surged at many times the national average—has lagged behind the national average by almost 20 percent.
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. Less than 15 percent of households earning the local median income can afford a home in L.A. or San Francisco. In Santa Barbara, San Diego, Oxnard, Santa Cruz, or San Jose, it’s less than a third. That’s about half the number who can buy in the big Texas or North Carolina markets. Moreover, state officials warned in October that they might have to seek as much as $7 billion in loans from the U.S. Treasury.
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According to real estate analysts, the only thing preventing the current outflow from being worse is that homeowners cannot sell their residences in order to move.
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California has the 15th highest poverty rate in the nation. Only New York and the District of Columbia fare worse if the cost of living is factored in. Indeed, after accounting for cost of living, L.A., Monterey, and San Francisco counties—all places known for concentrations of wealth—have poverty populations of 20 percent. “San Francisco,” says historian Kevin Starr, a native of the city, “is a cross between Carmel and Calcutta.”
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The educational system, closely aligned with the Democrats in the legislature, accelerated its secular decline. Once full of highly skilled workers, California has become increasingly less so. For example, California ranks second in the percentage of its 65-year-olds holding an associate degree or higher and fifth in those with a bachelor’s degree. But when you look at the 25-to-34 age group, those rankings fade to 30th and 24th.
Instead of reversing these trends, the state legislature decided to spend its money on public employees and impose ever more regulatory burdens on business. Davis, a clever and experienced public servant, understood this but could not fight the zealots in his own party. When the state’s revenues shrank after the high-tech bust in 2000, he appeared to be their complete captive. Perhaps the most telling example of the misplaced priorities of the state’s majority party took place amid the state budget crisis when legislators, facing an imminent fiscal disaster, took time to debate legislation about providing more protections for transgender Californians.
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The Terminator and his advisors also never understood the economic rot undermining the state. The governor assumed little could be done to preserve manufacturing, warehousing, and other high-paying blue-collar jobs in California. Instead, he bought the idea that “creative” professionals in technology, finance, and entertainment could keep the state economically vibrant.
As pet social programs, entitlements, and state employee pensions soared, infrastructure spending shrank drastically.
To be sure, the big players in technology and entertainment still often keep their main offices, and sometimes their research facilities, in California. However, they also tend to locate their middle management and production jobs to more affordable, enterprise-friendly states and countries. This is one reason, notes the Milken Institute’s Ross DeVol, that tech growth has been relatively weak even during the much-ballyhooed Internet 2.0 boom.
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California’s unemployment is now over 7.3 percent, fourth worst in the nation, behind only Michigan, Mississippi, and Rhode Island.
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american.com
I grant you CA would be tougher to run than AK. The folks running it in the past and present have been and are running it into the ground.
Texas, as big as CA- but not economically, why? They have BIG OIL do they not? Why isn't texas an economic juggernaut.
Excuse me, but TX IS an economic juggernaut:
Fortune 500 Companies in Texas
In 2007, Texas (for the first time) surpassed both New York and California in the number of Fortune 500 companies headquartered in the State. (Texas-58 companies, New York-55, & California-52).
predictify.com
In 2006, Texas had a gross state product of $1.09 trillion,[2] the second highest in the U.S.[3] Gross state product per capita as of 2005 was $42,975.
Texas had the second largest workforce in the nation[4] with almost 11 million civilian workers. The lack of personal income tax as well as the largely undervalued real estate throughout Texas has led to large growth in population. Since the 2003 legislature the Governor's office has made economic development a top priority.
Much economic activity in Texas is regional. For example, the timber industry is important in East Texas's economy but a non-factor elsewhere. Houston, the state's largest urban economic enclave stands at the center of the petrochemical, biomedical research trades, shipping, and aerospace (particularly NASA). Dallas houses the state's predominant defense manufacturing interests and the expansive information technology labor market. West Texas and the panhandle is dominated by ranching and the petroleum industry.
Texas's growth can be attributed to the availability of jobs, the low cost of housing, the lack of a personal state income tax, high quality of education, low taxation and limited regulation of business, a central geographic location, a limited government, favorable weather, and plentiful supplies of oil and natural gas. There are currently 33 billionaires residing in Texas today. Dallas has 11 billionaires, the most of any city in Texas.
Texas has the highest number of Fortune 500 company headquarters in the United States, fifty-eight.[5] This has been attributed to both the growth in population in Texas and the rise of oil prices in 2005. Houston has the second highest number of Fortune 500 companies in the US, second to New York.
en.wikipedia.org
Below are the 2003 Fortune 500 companies for TX and CA for 2003. You'll note not all CA's are "high tech" and TX's aren't all oil companies. You'll note CA even has a couple big oil companies hq'd there - CVX and Oxy. While Tx has Dell, EDS, Tx Instruments, and has more of HP's (a CA hq'd company) employees in TX than CA has).
California's Fortune 500 companies - 2003:
A Agilent Technologies Add to cart
AMGN Amgen Add to cart
AAPL Apple Computer Add to cart
AMAT Applied Materials Add to cart
AVY Avery Dennison Add to cart
CPN Calpine Add to cart
SCH Charles Schwab Add to cart
CVX ChevronTexaco Add to cart
CSCO Cisco Systems Add to cart
CLX Clorox Add to cart
CNF CNF Add to cart
CSC Computer Sciences Add to cart
CFC Countrywide Financial Add to cart
DOL Dole Food Add to cart
EIX Edison International Add to cart
FNF Fidelity National Financial Add to cart
FAF First American Corp. Add to cart
FLR Fluor Add to cart
GPS GAP Add to cart
GTW Gateway Add to cart
GDW Golden West Financial Add to cart
HNT Health Net Not Available
HPQ Hewlett-Packard Add to cart
HLT Hilton Hotels Add to cart
IM Ingram Micro Add to cart
INTC Intel Add to cart
JEC Jacobs Engineering Add to cart
KBH KB Home Add to cart
Levi Strauss Not Available
LDG Longs Drug Stores Add to cart
MAT Mattel Add to cart
MXO Maxtor Add to cart
MCK McKesson Add to cart
NOC Northrop Grumman Add to cart
OXY Occidental Petroleum Add to cart
ORCL Oracle Add to cart
Pacific LifeCorp Not Available
PHSY Pacificare Health Systems Add to cart
PCG PG&E Corp. Add to cart
PVN Providian Financial Add to cart
QCOM Qualcomm Add to cart
ROST Ross Stores Add to cart
SWY Safeway Add to cart
SANM Sanmina-SCI Corp. Add to cart
SRE Sempra Energy Add to cart
SLR Solectron Add to cart
SUNW Sun Microsystems Add to cart
THC Tenet Healthcare Add to cart
UCL Unocal Add to cart
USAI USA Interactive Add to cart
DIS Walt Disney Add to cart
WLP WellPoint Health Networks Not Available
WFC Wells Fargo Add to cart
Texas's Fortune 500 companies - 2003:
ADVP AdvancePCS Add to cart
ACS Affiliated Computer Services Add to cart
AMR American Airlines Add to cart
APC Anadarko Petroleum Add to cart
BHI Baker Hughes Add to cart
BNI Burlington Northern Santa Fe Add to cart
BR Burlington Resources Add to cart
CNP Center Point Energy Add to cart
CTX Centex Add to cart
CCU Clear Channel Communications Add to cart
COP ConocoPhillips Add to cart
CAL Continental Airlines Add to cart
CBE Cooper Industries Add to cart
DHI D.R. Horton Add to cart
DF Dean Foods Add to cart
DELL Dell Computer Add to cart
DYN Dynegy Add to cart
EP El Paso Corp. Add to cart
EDS Electronic Data Systems Add to cart
ESR Encompass Services Add to cart
EPD Enterprise Products Add to cart
XOM Exxon Mobil Add to cart
FLM Fleming Add to cart
GPI Group 1 Automotive Add to cart
HAL Halliburton Add to cart
JCP J.C. Penney Add to cart
KMB Kimberly-Clark Add to cart
LII Lennox International Not Available
LYO Lyondell Chemical Add to cart
MRO Marathon Oil Add to cart
Neiman Marcus Not Available
PLX Plains All American Pipelin Add to cart
RSH RadioShack Add to cart
REI Reliant Energy Add to cart
SBC SBC Communications Add to cart
SII Smith International Add to cart
LUV Southwest Airlines Add to cart
SYY Sysco Add to cart
TIN Temple-Inland Add to cart
TSO Tesoro Petroleum Add to cart
TXN Texas Instruments Add to cart
TRI Triad Hospitals Add to cart
TXU TXU Add to cart
USAA Not Available
VLO Valero Energy Add to cart
WMI Waste Management Add to cart
buyandhold.com
CA's economy is still bigger than TX's as its population. But pretty clearly, TX is on the rise and CA is on the decline. |
