Californians prepare yourself to be robbed (San Jose, Sacramento: insurance, employment, construction)

[casharistocrat]

your taxes are going to go up again to pay for more #$#3 we cannot afford.It is time to start cutting social programs and reducing the runaway expenses of education.The kids are as dumb as ever and the majority drop out anyhow so why are we spending so much.

Schwarzenegger's tax plan has foes and fans - Sacramento Politics - California Politics | Sacramento Bee

[katenik]

been there, done that.

http://www.city-data.com/forum/los-a...-increase.html

people don't care. they would rather be able to take a train to the beach than keep more of their own money to spend on their own and their families' needs.

[greggd]

I was suprised the proposition for the train from la to san francisco passed, but voted for local/regional projects. I'd like to see more people out of their cars for commuting purposes. The traffic is so bad in west la and santa monica that it's impossible to travel some evenings.

Regarding education, I heard a great suggestion the other day.... If you don't pass highschool with a "B" average, you dont get a drivers license.

It may enough incentive to get the % of kids that actually want to learn to create some peer pressure on those who don't.

The school issue is totally out of control in my opinion, way more kids than we have schools, huge construction budget and poor results. There really is no single answer to that mess.

[MIKEETC]

Originally Posted by greggd

...

Regarding education, I heard a great suggestion the other day.... If you don't pass highschool with a "B" average, you dont get a drivers license.

It may enough incentive to get the % of kids that actually want to learn to create some peer pressure on those who don't.

...

Interesting incentive.

However, if the stigma of potentially not doing well after high school (because of lackluster employment options, limited income, etc.) because you did not do well in high school is not enough, then not being able to get a driver's license is hardly going to do the trick. In my opinion, being a high school drop-out, period, is significantly worse, and more embarrassing, than not having a driver's license. After all, it is just high school. As always, there are circumstances that would justify a poor performance in high school or a failure to finish, but for 99% of the population there is no excuse. It seems to me that these days, failure (without trying) is an option. When did failure become okay?

[EscapeCalifornia]

Originally Posted by MIKEETC

Interesting incentive.

However, if the stigma of potentially not doing well after high school (because of lackluster employment options, limited income, etc.) because you did not do well in high school is not enough, then not being able to get a driver's license is hardly going to do the trick. In my opinion, being a high school drop-out, period, is significantly worse, and more embarrassing, than not having a driver's license. After all, it is just high school. As always, there are circumstances that would justify a poor performance in high school or a failure to finish, but for 99% of the population there is no excuse. It seems to me that these days, failure (without trying) is an option. When did failure become okay?

I don't know about that. In some parts of town, I can see not having a license being a bigger stigma than being a high school dropout. Then again, these are the same parts of town where driving without a license, insurance, and uh, other documentation is common practice so I guess they'd just drive anyway. Maybe we just need to make getting a license harder (like in Germany) and make driving without a license punishable by public caning. That'll thin out the traffic.

[FashionD]

Yes, those people who voted yes basically just threw millions of dollars down the drain. This train will never get built and just further sink CA into debt.

[Humanoid]

Californians just have an odd notion of finance. They think (like the ads tell them) that you can take out a bunch of debt and money will magically appear to pay off the debt. There is a budget crisis and Californians just voted for a extremely expensive cho-cho.

Oh, San Jose wants $14 billion from the TARP (bailout funds).....$14 billion for a single city. For what? They say mainly transportation projects.....Gotta love those bay area ghosts trains...

Incidentally, they've been living their personal life in a similar fashion as can be seen by the epic housing bubble in California.

At least its relatively easy to move states...

[Huckleberry3911948]

voucher system sooner the better.

[hsw]

If not for CA's amazing weather and topography, would have moved to lower-tax, high QOL Chicago years ago to escape CA's onerous taxes

As a car nut, I despise mass transit, except as a way within urban regions to get inept, dangerous drivers, many of whom are slow left-lane hogs anyway, off busy, commuter freeways and roads....

But who the hell travels via train from SF to LA? Prob same obese, hygiene-free crowd that uses Greyhound and trains everywhere...suspect most families prefer to travel via their own car...and business travelers fly between closest airports relevant to their mtgs in these sprawling urban regions...train stations aren't convenient to major office complexes, which are sprawled around SiliconValley and places like BeverlyHills/CentCity, 1000 Oaks and Irvine, not in City of SF or Downtown LA....

Agree, the public schools are a joke....aside from Irvine and PaloAlto schools, don't know of many competent public schools in CA.....combination of moron parents who clearly never learned family planning (the apple doesn't fall that far from tree, right?); inept, unionized teachers; and overpaid school admin staff more concerned about sports teams, community service and "diversity" nonsense, as opposed to basic reading/writing/math....and relevant job skills....

[BennyPhoenix]

Originally Posted by hsw

If not for CA's amazing weather and topography, would have moved to lower-tax, high QOL Chicago years ago to escape CA's onerous taxes

As a car nut, I despise mass transit, except as a way within urban regions to get inept, dangerous drivers, many of whom are slow left-lane hogs anyway, off busy, commuter freeways and roads....

But who the hell travels via train from SF to LA? Prob same obese, hygiene-free crowd that uses Greyhound and trains everywhere...suspect most families prefer to travel via their own car...and business travelers fly between closest airports relevant to their mtgs in these sprawling urban regions...train stations aren't convenient to major office complexes, which are sprawled around SiliconValley and places like BeverlyHills/CentCity, 1000 Oaks and Irvine, not in City of SF or Downtown LA....

Agree, the public schools are a joke....aside from Irvine and PaloAlto schools, don't know of many competent public schools in CA.....combination of moron parents who clearly never learned family planning (the apple doesn't fall that far from tree, right?); inept, unionized teachers; and overpaid school admin staff more concerned about sports teams, community service and "diversity" nonsense, as opposed to basic reading/writing/math....and relevant job skills....

Cant argue with that.