L.A. Times: Why is liberal California the poverty capital of America?

"Guess which state has the highest poverty rate in the country? Not Mississippi, New Mexico, or West Virginia, but California, where nearly one out of five residents is poor. That’s according to the Census Bureau’s Supplemental Poverty Measure, which factors in the cost of housing, food, utilities and clothing, and which includes noncash government assistance as a form of income..."

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-jackson-california-poverty-20180114-story.html

I was born in L.A. and lived there 30 years. But in 1989, I could not afford it any longer and moved to the rustbelt. Now the rustbelt is getting unaffordable and gentrified as well.

When I was a teen in L.A. a gal I dated could afford a little apartment in Hollywood and she worked for min wage at Montgomery Ward. Well, population swelled, rents rose and wages did not.

L.A. will always be popular with the homeless.

https://danielteolijr.files.wordpre...-city-hall-v25-2015-daniel-d-teoli-jr-mr1.jpg

Last night it was 2 degrees here. At least in L.A. you wont freeze to death. I am always baffled how people can afford the rent in CA. I am amazed why CA's homeless pop is not 10 times bigger.

 

I think it'd make a huge difference to bar foreign investors from purchasing homes as financial assets and to seize them without any form of compensation to be sold at reduced rates to occupants, and to invest in substantial public housing programs. The goal being to cut off one of the huge factors reducing the supply of housing for people who actually need somewhere to live and to put downward pressure on prices.

Because honestly, if you own a house you don't intend to even rent, **** you anyway. If I saw someone on the street dying I'd consider helping them unless I found out they did that.

 

Perhaps California should deport their illegals instead of hiding them.

 

This will never happen, and with good reason.

 

Because of the poor international investors?

 

Are you talking about illegal aliens?

 

No, I'm talking about Chinese and Russian millionaires who stash their wealth in US real estate for safekeeping

 

Nice Stalin like fairytale dream your imagination has.

 

Rent control can accomplish the same goals

 

"Proud of my heritage, I had this urge to run for the state legislature, so I did and I won. I was hoping I could do something in Sacramento to slow the decline of the Golden State. But it was not to be. I quickly discovered that the legislature was so dominated by far left ideologues, there was nothing that could be done to reverse course. My Democrat colleagues were not concerned one bit about how their policies were destroying the economic golden goose that made California so famous worldwide. Indeed, they actually believe their big government and nanny state policies have made California the model of how progressives can succeed in governing. Seriously.

The entire time I served in Sacramento, the Democrats were focused almost exclusively on legislation which either had to do with wealth redistribution or creating new “rights” for alleged victims such as illegal aliens, criminals, union members, homosexuals, transgenders and other “oppressed” groups. And it’s no different today. The reality is that the average middle class Californian hasn’t had representation in the halls of Sacramento for decades. Indeed, I predict the destruction of California will, unfortunately, be one of the great legacies of the progressive movement..."

Adios California...-> https://spectator.org/adios-california/

 

Yes, but this strikes fear into the hearts of the powerful and inspires the masses.

If the choices are defending this **** and Stalin, eventually people are going to not care about the constant Stalin analogies.

 

I remember reading something about California's financial problems many, many years ago. It said something like it was 12 million in the hole in health care or education or something like that. In another report, it said that California had spent around 12 million supporting illegals. I remember the one word that went through my head: Duh!

 

Because every single time democrats control a city for decades, it turns into a shithole?

 

Because this is a country with the rule of law and we do not arbitrarily trash property rights.

 

People who advocate for rent control don't understand economics.

 

California can't stand itself.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/n...om-rest-of-state/ar-AAuLdwL?OCID=ansmsnnews11

 

The great Victor Davis Hanson has more to say on the subject. http://www.nationalreview.com/article/425885/can-california-be-saved-victor-davis-hanson

 

I remember reading that a few years ago.

Obvious 2/3 of Californians didn't read it.

 

The top ten states based upon their median household incomes are

Maryland
Hawaii
Alaska
New Jersey
Connecticut
Massachusetts
New Hampshire
Virginia
California
Washington

Hawaii and Alaska have a significantly higher cost of living, but whether the rest being comparatively liberal states accounts for their prosperity or their prosperity results in their being more liberal, the empirical reality is what it is.

 

Why does the LA Times, a very leftist paper, call California the poverty capital of America?
Is it because the state is a welfare magnet that simultaneously drives middle class people and businesses away through taxation, stifling regulations and a declining standard of living?

And could it also be a toxic sense of hubris and smug self satisfaction that says, let the chumps move to Idaho...we'll always be great and do just fine.

Yeah, as a former resident it's all that.

 

N one can deny that there isn't a lot of money in each of these States but the problems arise from the shrinking middle class and the differences between rich and poor, just as was happening during the Obama Administration. While the average might appear very good for the State the disparity between the classes isn't.

 

The population surge certainly has put a squeeze on rents and housing prices.
That's the biggest thing holding California back, the high cost of living caused by excessive population densities. It's made worse by the unique state geography that tends to squeeze most of the population into narrow a coastal strip, sandwiched between ocean on one side, and mountains and dry hot desert on the other. They're also having water shortages, but I believe only one third of that is caused by the high population.

Right now 90% of the entire country's fruits and vegetables are grown in that state. Even though agriculture isn't a gigantic part of the state's overall economy, it's very important in the interior parts of the state that have more affordable costs of living. Those water shortages might be putting an end to most of the agriculture in the state. Encroachment of housing developments onto former farmland from the high population hasn't helped either.

 

We should start

 

We should start trashing property rights?

How many properties do you think rich Chinese and Russians own? Are they buying properties in Hawaiian Gardens, or Bell Air?

 

Trump's deficit-bloating redistribution of wealth to the wealthiest certainly widens the gap that has been growing for decades between the filthy rich and the unwashed masses.

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... and Trump is alienating the moderately affluent educated, White suburbanites from the GOP: