Green movement proving expensive for California
The green movement in California might be costing the state much-needed revenue.
The green movement in California might be costing the state much-needed revenue.
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When you look at this very telling chart of Energy Supply and the Individual States from Gregor MacDonald’s Gregor.us Monthly, you see the harmful economic impact the green movement has had on California.
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This is the institutional blog of the Ludwig von Mises Institute and many of its affiliated writers and scholars commenting on economic affairs of the day.
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Sound blasphemous? Not really. Victor Sperandeo said effectively the same thing in the video excerpt Observe What Is.
California consumes 3 times as much energy as it produces, and as MacDonald states, “when oil and natural gas prices rise, states like Colorado see a cascade of earnings, revenues, and royalties flow into their state. Whereas states like California see a cascade of capital flow out of state.” This seems emblematic of how LA and California in general are run: the state and local economic policies seem to chase otherwise great businesses out of the state, rather than trying to attract them or get them to stay.
Borrowing from MacDonald, I think California consumes 3 times as much energy as it produces intellectually too: our leaders are economically illiterate but the government workers seem to be doing well, despite not wanting to share in the meltdown.
LA Unified School District pays 160 teachers $10 million a year to do nothing. They spent $2 million in legal and salary costs on a case that dates back to 2002 – to remove one teacher for misconduct.
What I’m also thinking about is the recent layoffs, the layoffs to come, more firms like Northrop Grumman leaving for greener pastures, and a credit-rating downgrade that will cost CA millions more in nominal interest payments when (and if they can) issue more debt.
That Northrop Grumman was allowed to leave Century City without any major elected official stepping in to cut their corporate taxes or persuade them to do otherwise would be like watching former NCG Chairman and CEO Ron Sugar himself walking unscathed through airport security at LAX with a B-2 Spirit Bomber under his arm and not sounding the alarms.
California, and especially Los Angeles, are not business-friendly. And that’s before you have to deal with the USPS…
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