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There's a lot of things that California gets right. It's too bad housing isn't one of them.
by atarian 7y ago
There's a lot of things that California gets right. It's too bad housing isn't one of them.
- mrfusion 7y agoWhat things do they get right? Serious question.
- m0llusk 7y agoOh, many things that get lost in the details. One of the more surprising is how budget nonsense can work out reasonably well. The spending mandates that apply to the budget exceed the actual budget. As a result state employees allocate resources using their best judgement. Thus the political chaos surrounding the budget is converted into an orderly surrender to government administrators.
- gamblor956 7y agoCalifornia has had a budget surplus for several years bigger than most states' entire budgets.
- m0llusk 7y agoCalifornia has been in budget crisis for most of the time I have lived here which is one of the reasons for the very recent situation with the surplus. Several years of surplus does not necessarily make the process for dealing with a lack of surplus any less interesting unless you assume that the business cycle has disappeared.
- gamblor956 7y agoCA changed its budgeting laws during the last financial crisis to lower its dependence on transient high-income events like IPOs, and most of CA's budget problems stems from the state getting back less from the federal government than its residents pay in federal taxes (in contrast to red/flyover states, which for all their talk about low taxes would be bankrupt without the largesse provided by CA and NY). Notably, California had a budget surplus despite a relative lack of high-profile IPOs the past several years. It helps that many of CA's biggest industries are at the high-end of the value spectrum (i.e., tech, biotech, Hollywood, and video games).
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- adammunich 7y agoLabor protection laws like unenforceable non-compete statements.
- downerending 7y agoPretty good ethnic food, if you can afford it.
- odiroot 7y agoCancer warnings.
- thaumasiotes 7y agoPopular answers are "ignoring contractual noncompete clauses" and "the weather".
- atarian 7y agoAir quality control. Net neutrality. Higher education.
- pinot 7y ago+Parental leave +Daily overtime for hourly workers
- pengaru 7y agoCopious and well run state parks, CA is a really great place to spend time outdoors. The local organic produce is very good too.
- pishpash 7y agoState parks that cost $10 to visit each one, when there is often nothing in them? Nah, that state is great at getting at your money and wasting it on corrupt government.
- Rebles 7y agoIt's regular park not an amusement park. I don't know what you want "in them" other than hiking paths, picnic tables, parks free of trash/debris, respectable camping grounds, running water and toilets. Maybe you're not a nature person, but that seems worth $10 to me.
- pengaru 7y agoI'm not sure what your expectations are, but I've done a lot of hiking and camping across the USA and CA does it pretty well. Typically the fees are proportional to the facilities provided. CA often provides well maintained and regularly cleaned flush toilets and even hot showers at the state parks w/campgrounds, this is far less common in other states. CA does it so well I generally prefer camping there over staying in hotels. It's typically too much of a hassle elsewhere in the country, where KOA "campgrounds" are often the only options with such facilities. I've also done a lot of day hikes in CA state parks where there's no fee. You just park at a trail head and off you go, and these sometimes even have pit toilets at the lot, still with no fee at all. Your perspective strikes me as misinformed.
- shuckles 7y agoBest public university system in the country, perhaps the world.
- dragonwriter 7y agoThe housing problem is a side effect of the things California gets right, which bring in a lot of wealth which drives prices up and the bigger picture things that it (not uniquely; the rest of the country does too) wrong, specifically, managing distribution of gains. Ideally, you want to improve the latter without compromising the former, but this is made politically difficult because the people gaining from the former often aren't willing to take any risk to improve the latter, while those on the downside of the latter are relatively politically powerless, so the status quo is sticky.