Are businesses really leaving California? ---
I want to know what businesses. Is it going to be the aerospace business that left 15 years ago and has been floundering every since? Is it going to be the auto industry which left 15 years ago and has been floundering even during years that sales are at record highs? Is it going to be the lumber industry that left 10 years ago and moved to Mexico and other countries?
I've heard it said that businesses are leaving California.
No they ain't. A few corporations moved their main offices out of state but most of the other offices are still here. Most businesses are going belly up in the tank. Times are tough. It's hard to keep a business going. Risks, regulations, and headaches out weigh the rewards. They need to be balanced. Re-adjusted.
The State government has little, if any, control over risks. I have NO interest in sweetening the rewards on the backs of the taxpayers. But we can do a lot about the headaches and regulations. It's time for the lawmakers to step aside and let those who have to follow the laws have some input.
I immigrated from Missouri about 23 years ago. I did NOT come here for social service handouts. Or for the good schools, but they were very good, and inexpensive. I came here because I could. I came here for the same reason the '49ers came a 154 years ago.
Opportunity. I was looking for gold, metaphorically speaking. Did you know that most of the gold in California is still out there? Waiting to be found? It's true. Some of the old sites are "played out." But there are still Mother Lodes waiting to be discovered. Nuggets and veins of riches.
The only reason prospectors moved on was because they decided that it was more trouble than it was worth. But the gold is there just the same.
We just need to dig deeper. Work harder. Go farther.
When you look back and consider California's great successes, great industries, great achievements do NOT get nostalgic and bemoan the good old days. There was a time when that was Califonia's future. That future was built by people from all over the world. People who did NOT all speak English. People who came here because they could. For opportunity. People who failed to find the nuggets they sought but still saw the opportunities and dug deeper. Worked harder. Went farther.
Boomtowns were crowded, expensive, filled with crime and shootings. There was inadequate public transport, under staffed-overworked law enforcement, and few if any doctors or hospitals.
Somehow they made it all better. NOT by kicking people out of town (Well maybe a few Irish) but through hard work and leadership. From a situation NOT unlike our own today, Californians CREATED opportunites and a great, Golden State.
For every rare nugget of opportunity that is found on the surface of the creek bed, there are thousands of opportunites that are available to those willing to dig.
We don't need to bring jobs back to California. They are all ready here. The United States has the MOST productive work force in the world. California has ten percent of that work force, and living in a land of beauty --- beaches, mountains, forests, deserts, like NO other place on earth. Harbors, farms, industries, highways.
We canNOT let one suffer and be damaged because of an overzealous focus on the other. Can we find a balance? A compromise? NOT until both sides stop bickering and blaming and admit how important the other side is to maintaining the leading stature of this great State.
I want to work toward finding that balance.
