It wasn't too long ago that the state of California had the 7th largest gross national product in the world. California had a bigger economy than France at one time. I always enjoyed the fresh fruit, the nice weather, the beaches, and all the interesting companies that made a cornucopia of interesting goods. It was wonderful!

Now most those companies are gone, the state is broke, and it's bonds are considered junk. How quickly the mighty fall. The answer why is easy, everyone thought the state of California was infallible. Nobody watched the politicians and they spent the state into bankruptcy.

If this can happen to the state of California it can happen to the LDS church. All the members think the church is perfect and led by God. Nobody watches what the church leaders do because they aren't allowed to. The church takes in a lot of money but the members have no idea what the church's total assets are or what kind of liabilities the church has gotten into from pensions to loans.

The church could be bankrupt and barely getting by and the members would think all is well in Zion still. It would only become obvious when the church goes into default or has to start selling off mass assets to raise cash.

Don't forget over regulation. Every manufacturing segment was permitted, regulated & fee'd to death. Moved to AZ, NV & Mexico. Way to kill your tax base CA.

You're right - Google, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, Intel, HP, and Yahoo - have all left California. Oh wait, none of them have. And California is bound to have inevitable budget crises during recessions, but it's largely because Prop. 13 makes their tax structure unsustainable and excessively dependent on income and capital gains taxes. Oh, and California has the 8th largest economy in the world - a ranking that has been fairly consistent over the last 40 years. I don't think that California has ever had a larger economy than France, which has over 50% more people.

http://econpost.com/californiaeconomy/california-economy-ranking-among-world-economies

The article you posted shows California averages out to be the seventh largest economy in the world. It was only the 8th largest in 2008. Also, find five economists and get five different opinions. Statistics vary because the sampling varies.

I worked for HP. They moved a lot of their operations out of California when Carly Fiorina was CEO. The cost per employee in Cali was just too damn high.

"Don't forget over regulation. Every manufacturing segment was permitted, regulated & fee'd to death.

"You're right - Google, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, Intel, HP, and Yahoo - have all left California. Oh wait, none of them have. "

I guess you can't grasp "manufacturing". Not a bunch of software guys that "make" programs, but honest to God blue collar jobs. You know the guys that worked at the Van Nuys Camaro/Firebird plant. California was once the Western capitol for furniture making-gone. Airplanes were built in CA.Ship building was a big industry. Yachts were made in CA, as well as major appliances. Chemical plants employed people too. There are tons of businesses that moved manufacturing elsewhere. It's OK in CA to have a headquarters based there, but God forbid try to open a plant that actually makes tangible goods.

Because the larger transfer of manufacturing is to places outside the USA entirely! It's not really a California versus the rest of the USA-issue - that is merely a symptom of a much larger issue. It is really a USA versus the rest of the world issue. If you really think about it, why would any company manufacture anything in the USA?

...and just as high or almost as high unemployment rates. Been to Vegas in the last couple of years? Talk about disaster.