

California rated worst for business by Chief Executive Mag; Texas was the best - skmurphy
http://blogs.forbes.com/joelkotkin/2010/11/15/california-suggests-suicide-texas-asks-can-i-lend-you-a-knife/

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skmurphy
Opening paragraphs:

In the future, historians may likely mark the 2010 midterm elections as the
end of the California era and the beginning of the Texas one. In one stunning
stroke, amid a national conservative tide, California voters essentially
ratified a political and regulatory regime that has left much of the state
unemployed and many others looking for the exits.

California has drifted far away from the place that John Gunther described in
1946 as "the most spectacular and most diversified American state...so ripe,
golden." Instead of a role model, California has become a cautionary tale of
mismanagement of what by all rights should be the country’s most prosperous
big state. Its poverty rate is at least two points above the national average;
its unemployment rate nearly three points above the national average.

    
    
       Chief Exec Mag Rankings: 
       Top 5: TX, NC, TN, VA, NV
       Bottom 5: MA, NJ, MI, NY, CA

~~~
_delirium
Though I don't disagree with all of that, "its poverty rate is at least two
points above the national average" is an odd statistic to cite in a pro-Texas
article, since Texas's poverty rate is even higher (TX 17%, CA 16%, national
average 14%).

~~~
hga
It's not odd nor is a comparison with Texas necessary if the #1 question is
"Why is the 'Golden State' doing so badly?"

Plus we understand why a lot of Texas has been historically poor; the question
of why California has gotten a lot worse is probably more interesting.

(I'm not sure how much worse, how or when, my Google fu wasn't good enough in
1-2 minutes to find anything beyond "In 1969, California's poverty rate was
more than three points below the rest of the nation (9.1 percent compared to
12.5 percent)" in the summary of this:
www.wsws.org/articles/2002/jul2002/cali-j13.shtml.)

