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Three Californias


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2006 Aug 4, 4:25pm   21,203 views  236 comments

by HARM   ➕follow (0)   💰tip   ignore  

Thanks to Hollywood's cultural hegemony, everyone in the world seems to "know" California and usually has a mental image of what life in the state is like. Sadly, the reality of the typical CA "lifestyle" today bears almost zero resemblance to the popular Baywatch glamor image slavishly promoted by the media.

For most working-class wage earners (especially for post-Boomers) that lifestyle generally ranges from spartan to awful, and seems to be trending worse by the day. Housing is only one part, albeit a very large one, in the overall progressive deterioration in the quality of life here for regular folks. The deterioration manifests itself in a number of ways: environmental degradation/pollution, overpopulation/urban overcrowding, traffic perma-gridlock, rapidly deteriorating physical infrastructure and schools, and --critically-- the inability of a working-class income to provide a middle-class lifestyle.

Ignoring the current housing bubble for the moment, the secular trend for at least the past 30 years appears to be California transitioning to a completely bifurcated economy and society, strictly divided between a super-wealthy elite "haves" and a permanently impoverished majority, mostly made up of illegal immigrants and marginalized citizens. The emerging reality is closer to what one might expect to find in Mexico or Brazil, not in the U.S. The housing bubble has greatly exaggerated and magnified this trend, of course. However, even when you remove it from the equation, this long-term trend towards housing unaffordability, overpopulation and overall lower quality of life remains.

I present you with three distinct visions of California.

California Past (pre-Prop. 13, SMUG/NIMBY, illegal flood):

Hollywood Fantasy California:

California Present:

#housing

« First        Comments 213 - 236 of 236        Search these comments

213   Randy H   2006 Aug 7, 3:26pm  

G C aka Gentle Cheetah,

Not only do I find your comments a vapid attempt at intellectual voyeurism, but they are just generally annoying. You claim you are ignorant about American culture. In fact, you are just ignorant. I have a suggestion: go read "Culture Shock America" and go Troll somewhere else. Or would you like to share your opinions on pedophilia with us all again? Perhaps I should cross-link that for those who've forgotten what you are all about.

214   astrid   2006 Aug 7, 3:28pm  

GC,

I can't decide if you're serious in that last comment, or if you're trying to one up Stephen Colbert.

215   Randy H   2006 Aug 7, 3:28pm  

http://patrick.net/wp/?p=224#comment-63262

# Bork Says:
May 10th, 2006 at 4:24 pm

Honestly, this blog has degraded somewhat thanks to Gentle Cheetah and his multiple alter egos. I have to skip a lot of comments originated by/in reply to GC. It started with homosexual fantasies, turned into pedophilia topic and now it seems to be taking a “suicide” turn.

216   GallopingCheetah   2006 Aug 7, 3:29pm  

Debate my points. Do not attack nor threaten nor blackmail me.

217   GallopingCheetah   2006 Aug 7, 3:30pm  

I don't like Corbert's performance. Period.

218   Randy H   2006 Aug 7, 3:32pm  

http://patrick.net/wp/?p=221#comment-61166

# Owneroccupier Says:
May 4th, 2006 at 5:14 pm

Thread admin, are you falling asleep?

Talking about gay act is one thing, speaking of child molestation and paedophilia is entirely another matter. I think GentleCheetah should be banned for crossing the line.

I don’t visit this site for gay topic, there are far better sites with more graphic illustration to satisfy those who have interest in this topic.

Can someone delete GC’s posts as well? If you go down this path, a lot of poster who have more interesting things to say will be discouraged to come visit again.

219   GallopingCheetah   2006 Aug 7, 3:33pm  

I know my comment hit some nerves. But you have to admit that Colbert's performance was just disgusting, cowardly, and improper.

220   GallopingCheetah   2006 Aug 7, 3:34pm  

Resorting to emotional appeal is a very feminine trait.

221   GallopingCheetah   2006 Aug 7, 3:36pm  

Some corrections to my hash comment:

1) s/most American men/many American men
2) s/irrevelant/irreverent/

222   Randy H   2006 Aug 7, 3:44pm  

Gentle Cheetah,

You are nothing more than a Troll and I've resolved to have your waste of cyberspace here banned again. Maybe you'll treat us all to another of your outbursts. Here's a hint. Don't pretend you're an innocent immigrant ignorant of "America" then tip your hat that you're anything but by letting lose a volley of colloquial idioms so culturally specific that even some Americans would be unable to utter such insults.

Or did you think I've forgotten your shit I had to delete in past threads?

223   Randy H   2006 Aug 7, 3:55pm  

SQT,

I'm emailing Patrick his IP info. He's still coming in off a fixed MSFT address. And it's any wonder they're having trouble of late...maybe he's a bi-polar late night janitor who found an old copy of Nietzsche in someone's trash can.

224   Randy H   2006 Aug 7, 4:05pm  

Thanks SQT. I tried looking back through to see if his/her ban was ever lifted, and couldn't see that it had. I think (s)he just kind of crept back in while no one was watching.

225   Peter P   2006 Aug 7, 4:10pm  

How about a new thread?

226   Randy H   2006 Aug 7, 4:11pm  

Shall you or I?

227   Randy H   2006 Aug 7, 4:16pm  

New Thread: Inflation

228   Randy H   2006 Aug 7, 4:21pm  

I second SQT. I am very appreciative of all the diversity of opinion here, even some I viscerally disagree with. But the likes of GC are disruptive because they are classic, old fashioned Trolls. Just clever enough to often coax a few people into arguing with them, only to sit back and fan the flames.

His/her problem is that I'm old enough to have been a Usenet moderator. Sometimes I really pine for those days when we could squash a Troll and effectively get them blacklisted until they could figure out how to get their university shell account changed, which usually they couldn't.

229   HARM   2006 Aug 7, 5:07pm  

Woops --sorry Randy. I was furiously typing away at In the Mind of a F@cked Borrower and published before I saw your "Inflation" thread.

230   Different Sean   2006 Aug 7, 11:29pm  

SQT Says:
exactly, as i said, it’s not appropriate to write 2,000 words on either topic into this forum, i don’t have the time right now, and no amount of baiting or whingeing will make me do it.

OMG! You of all people have the guts to post this. You! The one who writes endless OT posts that take up half the thread?

because, SQT, i've realised there's there's no point making eurocentric posts against american libertarians, religious fundamentalists, 2nd amendment rightists, market fundamentalists, capital penaltists, ethnocentrists, fatalists, etc, as they just get longer and longer as people react. you will find just as many long posts by other regs here, and the word count of other regs is much longer than mine. i think you'll also find i don't initiate OT discussions 9.8 times out of 10, but i DO react to people who are willing to happily sacrifice other people's limbs and organs and lives in the interest of 'markets' or expediency or something in the interests of cocktail party chatter.

231   Randy H   2006 Aug 8, 12:05am  

DS,

I'm just curious. Which "ist" am I? Welche "ist" bin ich?

232   Different Sean   2006 Aug 8, 1:39am  

Randy H Says:
DS,
I’m just curious. Which “ist” am I? Welche “ist” bin ich?

hee hee, wouldn't you like to know.... :twisted:

and you can be more than one ;)

233   NARB   2006 Aug 8, 2:23am  

Dear GC,

The truth hurts. That is why you hate Colbert. From your posts you are an imbecile. Go fuck yourself.

NARB

234   salk   2006 Aug 8, 5:44am  

Communism may have victored yet we have failed to recognize it. Nearly 50% of the UK is involved in socialized industries. Energy industries are nationalized worldwide. China. Taxes 30-50% depending on the industry. Sadly Communism has never and can never produce the economic growth civilization requires. Only free market capitalism can produce the requisite growth. With the imploding bubble, real estate may be the next overtly collectivized industry.

235   astrid   2006 Aug 8, 8:51am  

But collectivized housing isn't all that bad of an idea. Housing is not a particularly innovative or productive area of production, and the McMansion trend is a case of the market's runaway evolution, like the peacock's tail. If Americans were content to go back to smaller comfortable dwellings that have no investment value (due to govt regulation or otherwise), that would free up investment and human capital for real innovation and real economic growth.

Also, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Fed rates...the US taxpayers are already in the RE business, they're just saddled with all the risk and non of the rewards.

236   salk   2006 Aug 11, 4:04am  

Time to get an EU passport? Autralia and New Zealand are viable options. Know some shrewd hedge fund guys moving to NZ. Know some professionals in South Africa who are desperate to find an alternative.

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