Do you think that riots in CA is a realistic scenario for the future?

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by xani

"California is a place for the rich and those who serve them". Ironically, even all software projects in SoCal were either about serving the rich people, deceiving people via stupid websites, or making some kind of murder equipment run better... medical projects? improving agricultural technologies? saving environment while improving industrial productivity? No, the money are revolving around dumb stuff like "facebook", or some other means to distract people from reality. They give multi-million grants to develop... a website that makes 3-D people avatars to play with... and everyone sits doing nothing spending these money until the project dies, while noble projects have no funding. I say recession better hack it all, if this is the order of things to stay. All the money being made off porn in SoCal... and CA has no money? The useless i-crap and apps market... that's exactly what it is: "circus" for the masses, to distract.

Interesting POV. I've said a lot of this for years. We're thrown every type of distraction to keep us occupied.

[Oerdin]

Originally Posted by xani

I mean the food, gas and homelessness riots...
I'm not very good with politics and understanding economic news, honestly. My friend, who's a smart businessman, told me yesterday that economic meltdown is impending and will result in riots in places like LA. (he's taking his money out of the US right now).

You're friend is an idiot.

[Oerdin]

Originally Posted by majoun

What the OP might have been referring to, and which is not exclusively related to riots, is an increasing trend of the monied leaving not only California but the USA for a variety of reasons including uncertainty about the future. The possibility of riots and terrorist activities are one part of this, but not the only part. This is an increasing trend which has gotten surprisingly little media attention.

In a way, this marks the ultimate "white flight" (although not everyone who has done this is white per se, most are): not just out of the neighborhood, the city, the county, the region, or the state, but out of the country.

Monied people are not leaving California. California is way over represented in the millionaire's bracket compared to it's population and that is largely because people who are really wealthy want to live in exceptional places which offer the services and social events they're looking for. The folks who have left California are mostly younger couples who couldn't afford to buy a house because of the high prices or retirees who's retirement plan is based on the capital appreciation they have in their house. Their plan is to sell their home in California and find some where dirt cheap to live.

Neither of these groups are wealthy.

[415_s2k]

When I walk down the street in SF, Oakland, LA, or any one of a number of CA suburbs, I hardly feel like we're a state that's on the brink, or anything like that. Are people frustrated with the fact that - once again - lining the pockets of the wealthy has failed to produce jobs? Yeah. Is the sort of credit boom-era glee about buying bigger houses and remodelling them yearly with fancier bathrooms and putting bigger HDTV's and another SUV in the driveway nowhere to be found? Absolutely.

I feel like California is quieter, less in-your-face, and more sensible than it was six, seven, eight years ago. Maybe it's just because I live in the Bay Area rather than LA, and am no longer in my early 20's... but regardless, the boom and bust hit California pretty damned hard, and, to me, the effects seem obvious.

There is somewhat of a concern to me that we are a largely service-oriented economy. But at the same time... we do have entertainment, we have technology, we have agriculture, we still have industry and commerce. We're still at the forefront of the world. We're still where many if not most foreign companies look first when they want to break into the US market. Hell, I was surprised the other day while driving out, there was a radio ad noting that Longview Fiber is building a new plant in the East Bay and looking for applicants - my grandfather on my mom's side worked for Longview up in its native WA for 40 years.

This talk about desperation and the inevitability of what basically amounts to California's descent into a postapocalyptic landscape of tribes contained by the National Guard from destroying the states around it makes for some wonderful fodder when it comes to movies, or making tea partiers from the South and Midwest feel better about themselves, but seriously: go out, walk around. Look at what's going on around you at any given time.

Just because someone's a wise businessman doesn't mean he can predict the future. If that was the case, plenty of wise businessmen wouldn't have ended up flat on their ass broke and millions in debt after having placed all their money in real estate, which in 2002, we all knew never lost value.

[nightbird47]

Originally Posted by Gentoo

People like Don9 have doubts of the water problem due largely to corruption within certain water departments. Take Sweetwater Authority for example; They asked it's customers (National City and Chula Vista) to cut back on water usages. So we did. Then they raised the rates. At an open town-hall type meeting when asked why rates increased, we were told it was because usage had declined even though they told us to. Incidentally they gave themselves a raise from 195,000 a year to 225,000. As much of a raise as many hard working people make in a year.

However, this should not fool anyone into thinking that water won't be a problem. There is growing tension between southwestern cities over the availability of this water. LA has priority, then San Diego, then Phoenix. Not sure where Vegas fits in but the politics over the supply of water is real for sure.

I remember when they were first building up the desert ourside of Riverside from small towns to more sprawl, there was a proposal for any builder to show that there were adequate water resources without compromising someone else to serve the expected population. Of course it got nowhere. It was admitted that if that was done there would be no houses or no "growth".

I'm glad I got out of socal before the big crunch comes because it will. There simply isn't going to be enough water. It's not just California but other areas as well. Two counties along the Texas Oklahoma border are suing each other over water rights. The Oklahoma side was supplying water to the Texas side and cut it off since they were coming up short. The Texas side sued in federal court citing the contract. The Oklahoma side claims it was for surplus water. But the whole state is in a drought and there isn't any.

This year my yard had been mowed once. Normally it would be a foot high. Now it just looks scrubby since most of the water lovers that grow in "lawns" here like the wildflowers and other kinds of non grass never came up. Everyone is happy about our recent "severe weather" since we've had rain, but the season is almost done and there is a lot of concern over fires as what has grown dries up.

Its much the same thing as California except for one thing. All of the people who live in this state are much less than the population of LA city. Outiside of town (a block for me) is hours of open space. OKC is experiencing a lot of growth but hopefully learning from the example of other places, the problem of water IS being talked about.

The first thing thats going to come down in socal is dead lawns and flower gardens but that is only going to be the start. In areas where water is more scarce, the rates are going high. There are things people can do to help, like lose the lawn and put in low water plants like people do in Tuscon. (you have a lawn, you pay a much higher rate to have it). What people have to admit is that socal IS a desert or semi-desert and we can't turn it into Oregon forever.

[xani]

Wow, I heard today US Supreme Court ordered CA to release large percentage of prison population due to "inhumane conditions" and CA having no funds to support prisons.... O_O sounds like the start of it!
I mean, these people will have no jobs...and will have bills to pay. I mean what to resort to but property crime, even food stamps won't save the situation.
What are they thinking? "Inhumane conditions" huh....how humane is to increase the risk for free citizens?? when you can't even carry a gun around here?? Sounds like a reason to get armed for me. I had a knife for self protection... the cops saw it once and told me to get rid of it, to avoid criminal charges... cause in LA, a law-abiding person can only carry a tiny knife (1.5" I think), unless it's a folding one....yeah, SURE.