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California is simply coasting on it's momentum. It was one of the best place on earth for a very long time. They WERE doing something right. Way back when. It

California is simply coasting on it's momentum. It was one of the best place on earth for a very long time. They WERE doing something right. Way back when. It's been over since the 90's. It is now an absolute shithole, but: a) many people haven't noticed yet b) when things were working, they've build up such a gigantic pile of cash that it's going to be a while before what they've actually turned into (something barely better than Mississippi) really shows. I'm not going to go into the list of things that are deeply broken in Cali, it's just too long, but here's probably one of the most flagrant, and directly linked to how badly money is managed: public schools. A quick Google search will present all the evidence required: richest state in the union, public schools at the bottom of the hit-parade. Or, you could look at the state of public transportation, one of the lamest in the world. Or the chronically jammed freeways, one of the most inefficient system for bringing people from one place to another. Or you could look at the amount of money wasted on the high speed train project between LA and SF, chronically over budget and never happening. Or you could just take your car and drive through LA streets and count the potholes on surface streets, assuming your car makes it to the other side in one piece. While you're at it, please take a look at the electrical grid in LA, it's one of the only place left in the so-called "rich world" where you can actually see it since it's hanging up there, pinned to 50 years old wooden poles. Some use of your tax dollar, right there. Or you could look at the sheer stupidity of real estate laws which leads to a state with one of the most expensive real estate market in the world while having at the same time a one of the largest stock of land to build on. If you take into account that the tax burden is one of the highest in the country, it's quite amazing you still manage to find ways to be proud of the place.

idiotsecant 3y ago
It's so frustrating arguing against things like this because no matter where you put goalposts, they always seem to move. You can that CA has terrible transportation systems. Compared to what? Texas? New York? Florida? All the other big states have similar problems. The US is large. we have bad transport, but california's transportation systems sure are better than just about anywhere else you might consider moving in the US. Then in the same breath that you complain about overloaded transport you point to a single transportation project as somehow indicative of a problem as well. Then you talk about potholes? Literally everywhere has potholes. I guarantee you I hit more potholes in rural idaho by an order of magnitude (where there is the luxury of paved roads!). Infrastructure is wildly expensive to maintain and population density is quite low. Up until this next point I was content to just mark you a troll and move on but your comments on california's electrical systems are incoherent bordering on bizarre. First of all, neither the distribution system or transmission system have anything to do with the argument around taxes. Every inch of it is funded by electrical utility rates. Additionally, california has one of the most advanced electrical systems in north america! California in fact pioneered the CALISO, which is an electronically interconnected system of generation that incorporates load and generation in everything essentially including and west of wyoming. They did this because they were voluntarily transitioning to a system of increased renewable generation to reduce carbon emissions and slow the rate of climate change for everyone, so they took it upon themselves to create a load balancing system from whole cloth incorporating dozens of utilities and hundreds or thousands of industrial facilities and small independent generation plants. This program has been incredibly successful and now controls generation and load of nearly the entire western half of the united states. Additionally, California's transmission systems include pretty advanced facilities for moving huge amounts of power from generation rich areas to load rich areas including projects like the California DC intertie, and countless other existing projects in addition to plans from the CALISO to add nearly 10 billion in new transmission in the coming decade. You literally picked the worst possible thing to criticize California on. Compare that to the typical bastion of 'don't tread on me' flag waving government-hating libertarians, Texas. Texas has the most laughably incoherant energy policy in the nation, and it shows. The texas grid fails under a stiff breeze and still manages to have incredibly expensive energy prices. The craziest thing about all of this is I don't even live in California, I just can't stand people that can't appreciate the staggering level of planning and engineering that goes into a system like an entire State and they spend all their time grumbling about potholes and wood distribution poles (?!). You're missing the forest for the trees.

idiotsecant 3y ago

It's so frustrating arguing against things like this because no matter where you put goalposts, they always seem to move. You can that CA has terrible transportation systems. Compared to what? Texas? New York? Florida? All the other big states have similar problems. The US is large. we have bad transport, but california's transportation systems sure are better than just about anywhere else you might consider moving in the US. Then in the same breath that you complain about overloaded transport you point to a single transportation project as somehow indicative of a problem as well. Then you talk about potholes? Literally everywhere has potholes. I guarantee you I hit more potholes in rural idaho by an order of magnitude (where there is the luxury of paved roads!). Infrastructure is wildly expensive to maintain and population density is quite low. Up until this next point I was content to just mark you a troll and move on but your comments on california's electrical systems are incoherent bordering on bizarre. First of all, neither the distribution system or transmission system have anything to do with the argument around taxes. Every inch of it is funded by electrical utility rates. Additionally, california has one of the most advanced electrical systems in north america! California in fact pioneered the CALISO, which is an electronically interconnected system of generation that incorporates load and generation in everything essentially including and west of wyoming. They did this because they were voluntarily transitioning to a system of increased renewable generation to reduce carbon emissions and slow the rate of climate change for everyone, so they took it upon themselves to create a load balancing system from whole cloth incorporating dozens of utilities and hundreds or thousands of industrial facilities and small independent generation plants. This program has been incredibly successful and now controls generation and load of nearly the entire western half of the united states. Additionally, California's transmission systems include pretty advanced facilities for moving huge amounts of power from generation rich areas to load rich areas including projects like the California DC intertie, and countless other existing projects in addition to plans from the CALISO to add nearly 10 billion in new transmission in the coming decade. You literally picked the worst possible thing to criticize California on. Compare that to the typical bastion of 'don't tread on me' flag waving government-hating libertarians, Texas. Texas has the most laughably incoherant energy policy in the nation, and it shows. The texas grid fails under a stiff breeze and still manages to have incredibly expensive energy prices. The craziest thing about all of this is I don't even live in California, I just can't stand people that can't appreciate the staggering level of planning and engineering that goes into a system like an entire State and they spend all their time grumbling about potholes and wood distribution poles (?!). You're missing the forest for the trees.