Californians Are as Dumb as the French

Steven Den Beste has been running a series of great essays on why France is screwed because of unsustainable economic policies and a general refusal to face reality.

Well, unfortunately, California seems to be in pretty much the same boat, and people here aren't familiar with economics either.

Thousands of community activists from Sacramento to San Diego gathered in churches and city halls over the weekend to put a face on California's historic budget crisis as legislative leaders continued dueling for dollars under the dome. ...

Sacramento City Council members Sandy Sheedy, Dave Jones, Lauren Hammond and Bonnie Pannell all said they would support resolutions urging the Legislature to impose higher taxes on corporate-owned properties.

County Supervisor Roger Dickinson promised to protect county health-care clinics and maternal and infant-care programs from the $100 million he said is expected to be cut from county departments across the board.

Assemblyman Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, and Sen. Deborah Ortiz, D-Sacramento, said they would push for amending the state constitution to lower the bar for passage of tax measures from two-thirds to 55 percent of the vote.

California businesses are already heavily taxed, and many of them are fleeing the state for greener pastures up north or directly to the east in Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico. It's impossible to solve our budget problems by increasing taxes, because people won't pay them: they'll leave, as they have been doing for the past decade. Sure, our population has been increasing, but mostly with illegal immigrants who don't pay taxes (but do use services).

It's no coincidence that they want to lower the bar for raising taxes to 55% of the legislature (rather than the 2/3 super-majority that's required now). The Democrats control slightly more than 55% of the seats.

As SDB writes about France, economic implosion is inevitiable -- maybe not today or tomorrow, but soon.

Update:
Bill Hobbs points to a Capitalism Magazine article commemorating the 25th anniversary of California's Proposition 13. Prop 13 was passed in 1978 and limits property taxes to 1% of assessed value, with valuations frozen at the time of purchase. The amendment to the state constitution is also responsible for the 2/3 super-majority requirement for tax increases.