Who Spoiled My California?
I was born in California many, many years ago.
When I was growing up California was a wonderful place. We had
everything.
As Garrison Keillor says about Lake Wobegon (in Wisconsin I believe)
“all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the
children are above average.”
That's how it was in California.
But we weren't just above average, we were excellent. we excelled at
everything.
Everything
As a matter-of-fact California was so far above everybody else. We had
no competition. Everybody wanted to be like us or to live here.
Back then (in the 1950s) California made everything. We had steel
mills, we made cars, we made TVs, we made clothes.
Hell, I can't think of anything that we didn't make.
And we grew more than half of the fresh vegetables for the entire
country. We also grew a lot of rice. We even exported it to Asia. We
grew cotton (as much as any Southern state) and we were energy self-
sufficient. Every small town had a dairy and an egg ranch.
We Were RICH.
Everybody that wanted to could own their own home, and it only cost
(the total price) about one years wages.
And the sun shines every day. We were known as Sunny Southern
California. Even when it rained it was called liquid sunshine. And “all
the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the
children are above average.”
So what happened?
Politics. Politicians "killed" the California Dream. Now we don't make
anything, we are over-taxed, and we have a lot of below-average
people.
We should be the best place to live on the planet. We still have the
potential to have everything if the damn politicians would just get out
of the way.
Why should we import everything from China when we have plenty of
people to make those things?
I still live in California, but I would be a lot happier if it was like it used
to be.
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