As a Californian I have to disagree. The only reason you think it's being run just fine is because of the success of the private sector. The only reason California would be the 4th/5th largest economy in the world is because of the the tech industry and other industries that are in California (Hollywood, agriculture, etc). It's not because we have some awesome efficiently run state government.
Can you point to any place in the world that has an "awesome efficiently run" government?
It isn't a red versus blue thing, even grift-y one-party States like Washington are plainly better run than California.
California is run amazingly well compared to a significant number of states.
Tesla received billions in subsidies from CA as an example.
As a lifelong California Democrat, I realize that my party does not have all the answers. But the conservatives have all gone AWOL or gone batshit so we’re doing the best we can without the other half of the dialectic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_experiment
I think the Republican Party’s positive reputation for handling the economy and running an efficient government is entirely unearned.
Closing down major parts of the government entirely (as Project 2025 proposes), making taxation more regressive, and offering fewer social services isn’t “efficiency.”
I don’t know if you know this but you’re already in the center-right party. The actual problem is that there’s no left of center party, as well as the general need for a number of aspects of our democracy to be reformed (like how it really doesn’t allow for more than two parties to exist, or how out of control campaign finance rules have become).
Considering that the economy is supposedly to be the number one concern to most US voters, there really isn’t anything very far left available to vote for in that area.
It’s very easy to make arguments that they are successful in spite of a terribly run state government and are being protected by federal laws keeping the loonies in check (interstate commerce clause, etc).
Also, I'd argue that if you broke down the contributions to the state's rules and regulations from the local governments, the ballot initiatives and the state government, the state government is creating the most benefit and least harm of the 3.
No, I’m saying people who think the state is successful because of its state government and not because it’s a part of the US are out of touch. If California wasn’t part of the US, Silicon Valley would be a shadow of itself or wouldn’t exist at all.
It thrives on being the tech Mecca for the youth of the entire US to go to school there and get jobs there. If there were immigration barriers there, there would be significant incentive to just go to something in the US (nyc, Chicago, Miami, wherever). California had a massive GDP because that’s where US citizens are congregating to do business, not because California is good at making businesses go. Remove spigot of brain drain from the rest of country and cali would be fucked.
Secondarily, Silicon Valley wouldn’t have started at all without the funnel of money from the fed military, NASA, etc. But that’s not worth dwelling on if the scenario is California leaving now.
My overall point is that California has immense success due to reasons far outside of the control of its state government. The state has done very little to help the tech industry apart from maybe the ban on non-competes. When people start to credit the large GDP to the government, that’s some super scary shit that leads to ideas that will quickly kill the golden goose.
Innovators, makers, risk-takers, etc., are who makes the good things happen. The very little needed is rule of law, and that's about it. Beyond that, it starts distorting society quickly: measures meant to help someone inevitably cost several someones else, and become weapons to beat down competitors.
Source: https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/us-literacy...
To be fair in the comparison, the literacy statistics for the whole of the US are pretty shocking from a European perspective.
Edit to add: my own hometown had a lot of people who couldn't speak English. Lots of elderly mothers of Chinese immigrants whose adult children were in STEM and whose own kids were headed to uni. Not to say that's representative, but consider that a single percentage stat won't give you an accurate picture of what's going on.
It’s still easy to be a shitty member of a community without breaking any laws. I would never move to a country permanently regardless of official language status if I couldn’t speak the language required to ask where something is in the grocery store.
We had lots of Hispanic kids but not many who were super super fresh to the country. I'm sure the central valley was a whole different ball game.
Having said that, I would have thought this was partially a measure of migration. Perhaps illegal migration?
As I understand it, the US is abysmal by many metrics (and also exceptional by others). E.g., murder rated and prison rates are exceptionally high in the US compared to Europe. Homelessness rates are exceptionally high in the US compared to Europe. Startup rates are (I believe) exceptionally high in the US compared to Europe.
It's fun to poke at the US, I get it, but the numbers people love to quote online to win some kind of rhetorical battle frequently have little relationship to reality on the ground. I've done a lot of travel around the US and western Europe, and I see a lot of ups and downs everywhere. I don't see a lot of obvious wins, either, mostly just choices and trade-offs. The things I see in Europe that are obviously better almost 100% of the time are a byproduct of more efficient funding due to higher density. All kinds of things are doable in the UK, for example, which couldn't really happen in (for example) Oregon, even though they have roughly the same land area. Having 15x as many taxpayers helps.
Source: my mom was an adult ESL / Language / Literacy teacher.
And this isn't a partisan dig at Democrats. If a Republicans controlled everything then the situation would be just as bad but in different ways.
California does do several things very well. It also does several things poorly. Pointing out its current economic standing does not change that. The fallacy here is that we have to compare california against the best version of itself. Alaska is never going to be a California-level economy because the geography dictates that only a certain kind of person / company will set up there, for example. That doesn't mean the Alaskan government is necessarily bad. Every state has to work within its limits to achieve the best version of itself. Is california the best it could be? I think the answer is obviously no.
The golden age of California was a long time ago.
California's GDP in 2023 was $3.8T, representing 14% of the total U.S. economy.
If California were a country, it would be the 5th largest economy in the world and more productive than India and the United Kingdom.
If Texas were a country, it'd be the 8th largest economy in the world! This is a figure much less often cited. Texas has a smaller population 30 million v 38 million and is growing much faster in real terms (2.1% v 5.7%).
This is in spite of its objective awfulness. People are moving to Texas because of the economy. If Texas were in California's geographic position, one would imagine it to be an even more popular destination.
This isn't an endorsement of the Texan government, because there are many things I disagree with them on. But the idea that California's economy is singularly unique in the United States is silly. Many states with objectively worse attributes are faring just as well, and may even be poised to overtake california.
How embarassing would it be for Texas, a hot muggy swamp of a state with awful geography and terrible weather, to overtake beautiful California economically? To think people would actually eschew the ocean and the mediterranean climate and perfect weather to move to Texas simply because California mismanaged the state so much. This is the real risk.
Models show that by 2049, Texas will overtake california as the more populous and more economically productive state. Is that really the future you want? Is that the future California deserves? As a native Californian, I hope the state can turn itself around. It deserves to be a great state, but the path its on is one of decline.
One need just look at almost any metric. It's no just population or economy. Even by 'liberal' metrics, Texas is growing. For example, Texas has the largest growth rate in alternative energy sources: https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/texas-trumps-cal.... There's a very clear growth curve in Texas, while California's is much choppier and doesn't appear to be going in any particular direction. At some point Californians need to actually want to continue winning instead of resting on their laurels.
As for Florida's "HSR", it doesn't really qualify for the "HS" part. The fastest segment is only 200kph. At least it's built and working, which is nice and all, but it's not a real bullet train. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brightline)
I always think about this whenever someone says CA doesn't know what it's doing or it's being run wrong:
California's GDP in 2023 was $3.8T, representing 14% of the total U.S. economy. If California were a country, it would be the 5th largest economy in the world and more productive than India and the United Kingdom.
https://usafacts.org/articles/which-states-rely-the-most-on-...
(I know by population it will be different, but the argument here is around 'one of the the biggest' which is not a per capita statement.)
> Objectively, there are many states that are far worse off in any key metric
You can apply the same logic to USA.
USA is one of the biggest most successful countries in the world. Like every where else it has it's problems but it's being run just fine. Objectively, there are many countries that are far worse off in any key metric.
As your link shows, a much smaller %age of CA government revenue comes from the federal government vs most other states; in that sense California is a net contributor rather than a net taker.