carbonmarine
11-18-2004, 03:40 PM
'Liberal' California Wages War on Middle Class and Poor
California's high taxes and obsession with elitist political correctness have made the state so expensive that a fourth of residents are thinking about moving to a more reasonable state.
As greedy cities, counties and other governmental bodies restrict property rights and development in the name of environmentalism, housing has become prohibitively overpriced.
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The young are especially hard hit. A study released today by Public Policy Institute of California found that:
# 60 percent of respondents worry that their children will not be able to buy homes nearby.
# Only one in five who want someday to buy a house think they will be able to.
# Nearly half of respondents under 35 say they are considering leaving.
Instead of being optimistic about life in the former Golden State, the new generation "coming into the owning stages of their lives ... are exactly the people who are talking about moving elsewhere," warned Mark Baldassare, author of the statewide study. "You're talking about your work force. You're talking about your future."
The median price of a house nationwide is $186,600. In California it's $465,000.
Naturally, the most unaffordable areas are those most heavily Democrat. "The survey, the most comprehensive of its kind in years in California, reveals the moving-out sentiment is highest in coastal areas, and many are acting on it. Since 1995, according to the institute, more than 350,000 residents have moved from the coast to the less expensive Central Valley," the Associated Press reported today.
Take a look at the red-blue maps of congressional districts and recent presidential elections to get an idea of how the left-wing elitists of San Francisco, Berkeley, Marin County, Mendocino County and so forth are trying to price out those awful middle-class and poor people so they can sip their $6 frappuccinos and juices with like-minded pseudointellectuals.
In another sign of California's drop-dead attitude toward the middle and lower classes, harsher new emissions regulations will make cars cost up to several thousand dollars more there than elsewhere in America, the Wall Street Journal reported recently.
Some of the blame, of course, goes to California's voters. Though he has tried to stop the exodus of jobs to lower-cost states, liberal Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger persuaded residents of his deficit-plagued state to burden themselves further with a $6 billion spending spree on unproven research that destroys human embryos, even as hospitals in slums such as Watts are being closed.
Incidentally, the reality of elitist, unaffordable "blue" regions vs. more reasonable "red" regions exists nationwide. Consider: Massachusetts vs. Missouri, Vermont vs. Virginia, southern Maine vs. northern Maine, southeast Florida vs. north Florida, Seattle vs. Spokane, Aspen and Boulder vs. the rest of Colorado, Jackson Hole vs. the rest of Wyoming, Sun Valley vs. the rest of Idaho, northern New Mexico vs. southern New Mexico ....
California's high taxes and obsession with elitist political correctness have made the state so expensive that a fourth of residents are thinking about moving to a more reasonable state.
As greedy cities, counties and other governmental bodies restrict property rights and development in the name of environmentalism, housing has become prohibitively overpriced.
Story Continues Below
The young are especially hard hit. A study released today by Public Policy Institute of California found that:
# 60 percent of respondents worry that their children will not be able to buy homes nearby.
# Only one in five who want someday to buy a house think they will be able to.
# Nearly half of respondents under 35 say they are considering leaving.
Instead of being optimistic about life in the former Golden State, the new generation "coming into the owning stages of their lives ... are exactly the people who are talking about moving elsewhere," warned Mark Baldassare, author of the statewide study. "You're talking about your work force. You're talking about your future."
The median price of a house nationwide is $186,600. In California it's $465,000.
Naturally, the most unaffordable areas are those most heavily Democrat. "The survey, the most comprehensive of its kind in years in California, reveals the moving-out sentiment is highest in coastal areas, and many are acting on it. Since 1995, according to the institute, more than 350,000 residents have moved from the coast to the less expensive Central Valley," the Associated Press reported today.
Take a look at the red-blue maps of congressional districts and recent presidential elections to get an idea of how the left-wing elitists of San Francisco, Berkeley, Marin County, Mendocino County and so forth are trying to price out those awful middle-class and poor people so they can sip their $6 frappuccinos and juices with like-minded pseudointellectuals.
In another sign of California's drop-dead attitude toward the middle and lower classes, harsher new emissions regulations will make cars cost up to several thousand dollars more there than elsewhere in America, the Wall Street Journal reported recently.
Some of the blame, of course, goes to California's voters. Though he has tried to stop the exodus of jobs to lower-cost states, liberal Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger persuaded residents of his deficit-plagued state to burden themselves further with a $6 billion spending spree on unproven research that destroys human embryos, even as hospitals in slums such as Watts are being closed.
Incidentally, the reality of elitist, unaffordable "blue" regions vs. more reasonable "red" regions exists nationwide. Consider: Massachusetts vs. Missouri, Vermont vs. Virginia, southern Maine vs. northern Maine, southeast Florida vs. north Florida, Seattle vs. Spokane, Aspen and Boulder vs. the rest of Colorado, Jackson Hole vs. the rest of Wyoming, Sun Valley vs. the rest of Idaho, northern New Mexico vs. southern New Mexico ....