Whenever folks complain about California’s oppressive taxes, fees, cost of living, over-regulation, lousy roads, high utility costs and legal climate, progressives usually come back with this: “But California has the world’s fifth largest economy”— delivered with a smug “gotcha” look.

And it IS true — CA DOES have the fifth largest economy in the world. But that figure by itself tells us little about the prosperity of the PEOPLE in our Golden State. For instance, Red China has a much bigger economy (GDP) than California. Does anyone think that on average the Chinese are more prosperous than Californians? Well, anyone who’s not a Bernie Sanders acolyte?

Let’s look at the vaunted California prosperity compared to the otherstates— the only comparison that matters. Our CA median household income (half make more, half make less) is the 8thbest in the nation. Seven states have a higher median household income. So CA ranks high, but not the best.

See chart #1 below.

But then we have to consider that… Read More

Needless to say my last column on this subject caused a significant controversy as the orthodoxy on Trump and particularly on his statement that Jews were being ignorant and disloyal was anti-Semitic. There is quite a division on this subject. There of course is the effort to use this as an example that Trump is anti-Semitic in the minds of some on the Jewish Left.

The people who knee-jerk want to attack Trump on this act as if his statement existed in a vacuum. Not one person I queried knew to which question Trump was actually replying when he made his statement. Many did not even care to find out. The question was about the two actual anti-Semites, Tliab and Omar, suggesting they were propose cutting off funding for Israel.

Since the question was solely about Israel, one would question why people would write anything about Trump questioning people’s loyalty to America. They went off in legions saying, “whether Trump was questioning Jews’ loyalty to the U.S. or Israel does not matter.” Of course, don’t let facts get in the way.

And then there were people taking the position Trump was questioning loyalty to himself. In a summary from The Hill… Read More

A Defense of Proposition 13 Property Tax Revenues

by Richard Rider, Chairman, San Diego Tax Fighters

Updated 26 August, 2019 – updated for 2018-19 property tax revenues

Phone:858-530-3027Email:RRider92131@GMail.comBlog:www.RiderRants.BlogSpot.com

When it comes to gathering sufficient property taxes, Prop 13 is no problem at all–except for profligate spenders.Look at the history of my San Diego County–a history which pretty much reflects the history of property taxes in theurban/suburbancounties that hold over 85% of California’s population.

According to San Diego County, in 1977–the year BEFORE Prop 13 took effect (when everything was working great, according to Prop 13 critics)–our countywide property tax revenue was about $639 million.In the 2018-2019… Read More

A huge issue in the coming national election, Medicare for All, has been pitched as the next step by Leftists who want to nationalize our health care system. Yet it seems very little introspection has been done on the subject as to what really will happen. It is time we take a look.

First and most importantly, all private insurance will go bye-bye. From the polls taken, most people do not understand that. There are an estimated 180 million Americans who have private insurance. Most like their private insurance even though they are bothered by it at times. If you cannot get someone on the phone to resolve your issue, typically your insurance agent can, or your doctor can. Compare that to your experience with the government.

I work with tax agencies all the time. These are the revenue producing and collecting entities. They are impossible to deal with. When you are spending the government’s money, do you think it will be better or worse? The elected officials who want to put this medical system in place have their own preferred system. Do you think they wait in line? Do you think they stay on the phone for hours trying to get approval for a procedure?

A… Read More

Democrats have long touted their “commitment” to individual freedom and “human rights.” In California, we are seeing just what freedom means to Democrats. Let’s start with a definition of individual freedom vis-a-vis the use of government power. As I see it, a definition of freedom starts with the assumption that an individual has the right to live his or her life as they see fit. In raising and feeding their family, in their thoughts and religious beliefs, in keeping what they earn from the sweat of their brow, in participating in the debates that shape public opinion, and in the acquisition and management of the things they own, they should be free of the use of government force unless what they do causes their neighbor some form of physical harm or property damage. A society that values individual freedom values freedom of contract, private property rights, freedom of speech and freedom of religion, and will take action to protect those values from intrusion of others, and will not intrude on those rights with the use of that force.

Democrats don’t, quite frankly, believe in those values, they don’t believe in freedom. I… Read More

I fell for It. World Leaders fell for it. I bet most of you fell for it. The raging fires in the Amazon destroying the rainforest was being touted as a “cataclysmic environmental event” that could possible change the entirety of earth’s history. Because of some honest people, we now know that the story was a world class hoax making us once again question the motives of the environmental elite and their celebrity allies.

Because every time anyone questions the climate change orthodoxy I decided to research the people who were defaming those who were the promoters of this hoax. I stumbled onto an article in Forbes magazine written by Michael Shellenberger. Shellenberger is not a person that the Left can easily attack. Other than founding a couple of environmental groups, Shellenberger was named a Time Magazine Heroes of the Environment (2008).

Shellenberger wrote:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2019/08/26/why-everything-they-say-about-the-amazon-including-that-its-the-lungs-of-the-world-is-wrong/#27775f515bde

It is a detailed lambasting of the arguments made that captivated the world. He did cite liberal news… Read More

Most California residents are vaguely aware that electricity costs more than in most other states. But they haven’t seen the actual numbers.

I’m here to help. And to depress Californians.

Here’s the June, 2019 numbers for the average CA and U.S. cost per kWh, in cents. Our residential cost is far higher than the national average. But our commercial (think shopping centers, office buildings, etc.) and industrial (think factories) rates are even worse, again compared to the national averages.

All the figures are from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, a reliable source.

Want to know another reason California’s teachers unions are desperate to unionize charter schools? They want the leverage to force these schools to participate in CalSTRS, because CalSTRS charges all its participants the same pension contribution rates.

This is a truly amazing, grotesquely unfair, astonishing scam. It means that new schools have to pay for the every financial mistake that CalSTRS ever made, and they’ve made plenty. CalSTRS is only64 percent funded. CalSTRS is $107 billion in debt – that’s $238,000 peractive member. Better get more active members!

Even CalPERS, the largest public employee pension system in the U.S., and one that has engaged in its own share ofaccounting gimmicks, doesn’t make its financially responsible participants pay for the negligence of its financially irresponsible participants. Every… Read More