Press Release, office of Barbara Boxer, February 13, 2009:
Senator Boxer said, “In the face of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the Congress has acted today to save or create jobs in California and across the nation. With so many Californians anxious about the economy, this legislation offers help and hope. This bill will put Californians to work now building the highways, bridges, transit and rail systems, and renewable energy sources of the 21st century.”
The White House predicts that the legislation will save or create approximately 400,000 jobs in California.
Los Angeles Times, 1 year, 26 days later:
For many California areas, unemployment rates moved persistently higher in January, indicating that the national economic recovery hasn’t yet translated into jobs for the Golden State.
New county-by-county figures released by the state Wednesday showed that in eight counties, more than 1 in 5 people were out of work. Moreover, revised numbers for last year show that fewer people were employed than was previously believed.
The state was one of five, along with Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, that reached their highest unemployment rates since the government began keeping track in 1976, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. California’s was 12.5% in January, up from 12.3% in December.
Seems like the state lost more jobs that Mrs. Boxer predicted would be created or saved. Blogger Michael Roston, noting that the Sooner State is suffering nearly as badly as is the once-Golden State, wonders if we can expect to see the ‘Grapes of Wrath’ in reverse with people moving from California to Oklahoma.
(H/t for Roston piece which linked LA Times piece: Instapundit.)
I recently drove through the agricultural areas of Northern Florida, Central Georgia, Central South Carolina and Southern North Carolina. I noticed that everywhere many “used” shopping areas were coming back to life with services aimed at Hispanic labor.
I also noticed a depressing increase in junk filled yards and worn down housing. Lots of large manufacturing buildings sit empty with “for lease” signs on them. Main streets of small towns are full of rows of empty stores. There is an impressive number of new “technical education” government palaces for educating the populace for jobs that do no exist locally.
I drive this route at least twice a year and have done so for 40 years. It is my own little never ending travelogue. What I see now is the type of death spiral that will only stop when monied people move in to buy the cheap land and bring their demand for services with them.
Senator Boxer has no clue about life lived closed to the edge. Migrants move to where the work is. Residents stay put until they are forced to face reality.
Chile grows wonderful agriculture. Chile has a huge agriculture labor force that is darned glad with the work. Everyone is growing upscale in the process.
California treats agriculture as if it is one small step beyond slavery and the rape of the land. A single snail can cut off water to an entire valley. When that happens, the farm towns catch the cancer of joblessness.
If some of the descendants of the Joads are heading back to Oklahoma, it is not to pick up where their grandparents left off. It is to join a healthy economy and to pull their load. California would do well to model itself after Holland and become the “Tolerance State” and just tax the life out of the remaining narcissists and hedonists. The state could break into two states: one for regular people and the other for people who “need” to rollerblade topless to the coffee shop for weed and brie.
With 2 localities in California ranked among the Top 5 Most Troubled in mortgages, perhaps Ma’am can answer what she’s doing about that too.
http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/most-troubled-real-estate-markets
Blaming Bush and the Republicans year after year when you are in charge will only get you so far. One can reasonably respond: “Great. Now what are YOU doing about fixing the problem?”. Thus far the proposed fixes from the Dems ain’t hackin’ it.
Btw, I’m not even saying the government should do anything just throwing out there what will go through the minds of the average voter who doesn’t give a damn about what will appear to them as semantics when they are hurting badly.
Senator Boxer doesnt have a clue about what has happened to her State. She doesnt know what is taking place right now. I drove Interstate 10 from Beaumont, California to Blythe, California once a week. This is what I see – some median work through Banning, California. One small job on the transition from the 60 Highway to Interstate 10 in Beaumont, California. The rest of the 100+ miles of highway and freeway – busted out chunks of concrete, incredibly bumpy asphalt and aging black top that needs to have been replaced years ago. Madam Boxer gives lip service to more public transportation – that always runs millions in the red every year while the executives that run it make 100,000’s of thousands of dollars. The Green Jobs that are supposed to provide employment for everyone – non-existent!!! However, my utility bills are rising to fund some idiots bogus ideas about California needing to pave the way for “saving the planet.” Do White People always need a crisis? Do they always need to rip each other off for some cause? Do they have to have some pie in the sky goal that allows them to tax the hell out of their population?
I have mixed feelings about Republicans harping on the unemployment rate.
On the one hand, it is a way of pointing out that government spending does not create jobs – or at least not economically/financially sustainable jobs. Government “stimulus” is doomed to fail in the long run, and after 80 years of it, we are now within a few years of that “long run” – perhaps even a few months.
On the other hand, Republicans who harp on the unemployment rate implicitly validate the rationale behind all stimulus – the idea that government should “do something” about unemployment. Government shouldn’t. Government should just protect life, liberty and property, letting people take care of the rest. If people go nuts and over-charge for their services en masse, thus creating unemployment, well let them. Freedom must include the possibility of unemployment, and the idea that government should “do something” about it is ultimately anti-freedom.
Freedom must include the possibility of unemployment, and the idea that government should “do something” about it is ultimately anti-freedom.
Agreed, but then what Republicans need to do is to change the conversation to make it clear that what government needs to do about unemployment is to get the hell out of the way.
Right now, businesses have three major sources of expense — labor, materials, and taxes — and a smaller revenue pool. You can’t cut materials, because then you have nothing to sell and can’t generate revenue. You can’t cut taxes, because that’s illegal (unless you’re an Obama Party member). So you cut labor.
Cut taxes and watch what happens.
Precisely.