To: Land Shark who wrote (154095 ) 2/6/2009 12:43:14 PM From: Wayners Read Replies (1) | Respond to There is no way out for California, short of bankruptcy. The problem of course is California Dreamin. What I mean by that is that Californians live in a liberal, bleeding-heart, utopian dream world. It sounds like a nice thing to pay government employees huge salaries and pensions, as well as lifetime health benefits (as much as 60% higher than similar jobs in the private sector). It sounds nice to mandate a “living minimum wage.” It sounds nice to enforce tough rules and regulations on business. It sounds nice to offer generous welfare benefits to the poor. It sounds nice to spend lots of money on the homeless. It sounds nice to let anyone sue his or her employer for virtually anything. It sounds nice to make it virtually impossible for business owners to fire an employee. It sounds nice to mandate fines for whatever government thinks is beneficial for society (recycling, carbon taxes, greenhouse gases). It sounds nice to spend more money on education "to benefit the children." It sounds nice to offer free breakfast and lunch (as well as courses taught in Spanish) to poor students at public schools- even if they're here illegally. It sounds nice to pay for the college education of illegal immigrants. It sounds nice to defend animal rights. It sounds nice to ban offshore oil drilling. All of that sounds like “the right thing to do.” But in the real world, with real consequences, it is a dramatic failure.
