2003 Soap Box Archives

California Cataclysm 08/29/03

In the seventies there was a bumper sticker circulating around the
Denver area that read,”Don’t Californicate Colorado.” which I think was
a reference to the swelling population of the golden state, which was
rising at a fever pitch at that time.

In a mere twenty some years that trend has reversed and for the first
time in many years more people are exiting California than entering it.

That within itself may not be a bad thing as parts of the state are
severely overpopulated. But the problem is the kind of people who are
leaving. Many of them are retired people who have found that the
neighboring states of Arizona and Nevada are much cheaper to live in
while still offering the kind of perpetual summer they enjoyed in
California.

These people were a stable part of the tax base and quite a tax base it
is. Taxes in the state are prohibitive and unfair and they have
spiraled ever upward for many years until the burden is just too much
to bear for ordinary folks.

They have also taxed businesses until they refuse to put up with it any
longer and they are leaving in droves, taking with them jobs and
payrolls. California has lost around 280,000 jobs in recent times and
even in our most populace state that’s got to be an economic kick in
the head.

What happened to California? It’s a state which has almost everything,
excellent year around weather, mountains, an ocean, desert, golf
resorts, movie stars, Silicon Valley, a thriving wine industry and some
of the most fertile soil on the North American continent.

In my opinion California has fallen victim to out of control
politically correct, one size fits all pseudo socialism.

California politicians have attempted the impossible task of trying to
please everybody.

How can you give retired state employees 90% of their salary when they
retire? How can you allow illegal aliens to attend state universities
for less tuition than the people from neighboring states have to pay if
they want to go to school in the state.

Nobody really knows, or apparently cares how many illegal aliens there
are in the state, but I’m sure that the tax paying citizenry are very
concerned with the drain they represent on the social services.

The state government of California has become an inefficient, top
heavy, nightmare bureaucracy passing out tax bills with one hand and
handing out entitlement checks with the other.

Could California be a microcosm of what this whole country is going to
become if we don’t stem the tide of illegal immigrants and get some
people in congress who realize that it’s not their money they’re
spending.

What will happen to California? Is Arnold really the answer, a man who
claims to be a social moderate and a fiscal conservative. Are not
these two things a contradiction in terms? I guess we’ll see.

Pray for our troops.

What do you think?

God Bless America

Charlie Daniels

 

©Copyright The Charlie Daniels Band