Guest Commentary
by Robert E. Bennett
I grew up in Burbank, California and in the late 1950s, global warming was always present in the summer. That’s why my mother and father would get us in our 1957 Ford Country Sedan station wagon and head on down to La Jolla. I had four aunts and a grandmother living there. We would take Hwy 101 to Santa Ana and then head to the coast and intersect Hwy 1 at San Clemente. Then it was down to La Jolla on a Friday night after my parents had finished their work week. My God what a beautiful place. I had a friend named Charley who lived next door to my grandmother on Avenida Cresta. I wanted to live there.
It was usually dark by this time as we had to leave after my parents came home. But I can still remember how beautiful the trip was. The moon was out sometimes and the coastline was lit up as if by searchlight. And there were very few cars after we left Oceanside. The highway was clean, well paved, and safe. Illegal aliens were things that appeared in sci-fi movies at the Saturday afternoon movie theatre matinees.
I just got back from a stay at the Del Mar Hilton Hotel. My wife and I took a break from the heat of Carson Valley, Nevada, to get some quality sea breezes. And I admit, at age 62 my memory can be selective. A few million more people can make a difference. But there is something very wrong with California. It appears dirty, unkempt, and expensive. There is an urgency to go everywhere fast for some undisclosed reason. But the biggest difference from my many trips to So Cal is the decay in the public infrastructure.
Since Hwy 1/101 is a public roadway, it would normally be maintained by federal, state, and local government agencies. But we noticed that there are some parts of the PCH that are well maintained and others that are third world. Some towns have kept the medians and parking strips well maintained but others have let them deteriorate. In between towns where there is State jurisdiction,. the median landscaping has not been performed for what appears to be years. And what has happened to the formerly high quality state park system. Some of the towns take good care of their beaches, i.e. Del Mar, Carlsbad, etc. But the state?
Gasoline costs $.35 a gallon more than in Minden, Nevada. Both stations are ARCOs. Why is that? Besides the occupancy tax, our hotel had a SD Tourism District Assessment tax. Huh? With a very high state income tax, and a high sales tax, and taxes that I’m sure I don’t even know exist, where is the money going? PCH should be a magic carpet on the most beautiful piece of beach in the world. But just go through Leucadia, it’s like ruralsville.
So my friends, continue the good fight to lift the burden of welfare state Socialism off of your shoulders. And maybe your children will be able to enjoy traveling around the So Cal coastline like their grandparents used to, on a publicly funded magic carpet. Perhaps if Marxist redistributionism is eliminated, there might be some money left over for the wishes of the taxpayers.
We will be back.
# # #
Mr. Bennett lives in Genoa, Nevada and is an avid fan of SD Rostra.
Comments 6
Ah yes, cut out those programs for the greedy poor and hungry so I can drive down a beautiful highway to La Jolla. Infrastructure is crumbling, but cut taxes for the wealthy, maybe they will build us all new roads! Oh the benevolent rich. Why are we so hard on you?
We have pledged our allegiance to dollars and not people. We complain about taxes and forget that those dollars do real things like build roads, schools, and fire departments.
Yet, we cherish companies like Wal Mart and AT&T for being huge businesses and economic engines (profits, at all costs, profits). The wealthy move their bank accounts out of the country and fight to end capital gains and inheritance taxes (because the rich become richer, for being rich is a good system). They got theirs. Eventually, we all think we will get ours.
Policharizard
You do realize that these “profit hungry” companies are the ones supplying jobs to people that creates income and means, yes? They generate local,State, and Federal income through taxes. Do you honestly think and I know it might be hard for some to understand this. That creating a hostile business environment and demonizing them creates incentive to stick around? Now I that these “pesky” facts kinda get in the way of liberal “logic” but try and follow along with this…
Companies (albeit evil) create jobs..yes or no?
Those jobs that have a payroll tax…yes or no?
People who have jobs spend money…yes or no?
Spending money creates revenue for businesses which is also taxed…yes or no?
So when you over regulate, over tax, and DRIVE business away. The conclusion is that there is a drop in “tax revenue”. Which means NO MORE MONEY. So why demonize and punish these “evil corporations” which all that does is drive them away? You are quite literally biting the hand that feeds you. You can’t have your social welfare utopia without TAX money. Even though this socialist paradise”…errrr…I mean “progressive society” has always been a demonstrable failure.
If you don’t believe here is just some of the evidence
http://www.sba.ca.gov/Cost%20of%20Regulation%20Study%20-%20Final.pdf
and here (synopsis)
http://www.cagop.org/index.cfm/newsreport_771.htm
As for those “rich people who get theirs”. They are the ones who create the jobs. The reason why they move their bank accounts out of the country is because you people tax, demonize and punish the holy bejeezus out of them. Why would they?
I haven’t even addressed the problem about where and what tax money is spent on. This beautiful state is…sorry has been falling apart by feel good politics, liberal ideology, short sightedness, and all around myopic moronic policies that is only sustainable by government funding…
Cups, I just want to preface my response with the fact that we are going to disagree on many if not most of our political beliefs. That’s what makes SD Rostra a good website. People come here to disagree.
First of all, all corporations have one motivation. Profits. It’s not inherently good or inherently bad, but at the end of the day, ALL businesses are trying to maximize their profits.
Do companies create jobs? Yes.
Do employees create profits for companies? Yes.
The corporate/business structure is not just a benevolent organization that BESTOWS the PLEASURE of working for it to us lowly citizens. Workers are PAID for their labor because that provides profits for the business. Without the willing consent of the worker, the business would not exist.
Do consumers having the ability to purchase those goods create profits? Yes.
You are absolutely right. Purchasing power of consumers drives the economy. That’s why it is important that workers are paid a living wage and have access to public services that improve the workforce, like public education, stable infrastructure, police, healthcare, firefighters, and roads.
Do companies pay taxes? Well, some do. The biggest didn’t.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/business/economy/25tax.html?_r=1
Ultimately, companies that are “forced” out of our state by high taxes and difficult regulations have taken their ball and gone home. The few people who run these corporations (The Rich) have said, “Us (the few) are leaving to the detriment of the many (California) because we don’t want to help pay for the roads our trucks use, the schools that train our workers or the public assistance programs that support the workers who receive the minimum wage we pay our workers.”
Do rich people create jobs. Yes, they do.
Do rich people need more boats? No.
Do rich people need more tax breaks? No.
Do we need a massive re-distribution of wealth through raising the minimum wage to a living wage so people can start buying more crap from corporations and get the economy moving? YEP.
I own a couple of companies and we are planning on opening three more. One will be headquartered in Florida, One in Delaware and one in AZ. We currently have around 15 employees and none of them work in California. We have to compete all over the United States for clients and other states work ethic.
When we had employees in California my monthly workman comp bill was more than my annual workman comp bill in Virginia and we had 5 more employees there than here. Sometime in 2012 I will move from my beloved San Diego because this is the worst state in the Nation to do business. We have never paid minimum wage but every time it is raised our revenue goes down because more people lose there jobs. We service clients accounts receivables. I have yet to meet a liberal that understands economics and I will not continue to pay taxes, to redistribute anything to the socialist State of California.
California is in permanent decline and it will not change until the voters rise up and throw the people out of office that caused this mess. This will not happen for many years and one day they won’t have a lot of business’s to regulate other than the service industry. Next to go in San Diego is Life Sciences. 56% tax rate. About 15% of the San Diego economy. In the not so distant future the economy here I predict will be worst than Hawaii and will be a State full of tourists and the people that service them.
Municipalities should focus on infrastructure (roads, convention center), public safety (response times), recreation (parks and libraries). It should do nothing else until it can do those. A municipality such as San Diego should be friendly to all businesses (big and small). Other than that it should get out of people’s and businesses’ lives and leave everyone alone. A city should provide basic services, not be a mini social welfare state.
Policharizard must have been a “red star” in his local Young Pioneers club. Class warfare rantings over what is essentially a spending priority issue, not a poverty vs. affluence issue, may change the subject but it does not solve the problem.