California is an interesting place. Probably something like California never existed before. A barren state with no substantial natural resources, with cities constructed mostly directly over major fault lines, no water, the highest per capita immigrant population of any US state, and of course, also the state with the highest population per capita of lawyers. "Land of fruits and nuts." or "La La Land" according to the LA Times [11]:
The Oxford English Dictionary made some stellar updates on March 24, which are now online. For instance, "e-mail" is now "email." You can now, with reference to the OED, eat a banh mi sandwich or a taquito. And FYI (newly added), OMG is there too -- and it dates back to 1917. (OMG!).
But then there's this: La-La Land [12] is in the newest edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, and it defines our fair city. Here's the definition:
la-la land n. can refer either to Los Angeles (in which case its etymology is influenced by the common initialism for that city), or to a state of being out of touch with reality—and sometimes to both simultaneously.
What is it, the sun, the palm trees, the nightclubs, the limos, the fact that Spiderman can get arrested on Hollywood Boulevard? Do we deserve this (new word) smack-talking from a bunch of dictionary writers? Maybe they should all be wearing (new word) tinfoil hats.
But practically, California is now an industrial powerhouse, home to some of the world's largest corporations, a massive agricultural belt, Silicon Valley, Hollywood, Biotech, and Charlie Sheen. But all this happened in the last 60 years, during a post WW2 technology boom, such as the relocation of firms such as General Atomics and others; the connection between Hollywood and the US Military propoganda machine (did Hollywood really win the war for us?). California is a place filled with mystery, hypocrisy, and dreams. "The American Dream" can even be credited to coming from California. For example, when you are in Washington DC, there are no qualms or confusion about what they do. But there is a huge Military presence in California, probably even more than Washington, that is more subtle, unknown, and not admitted. For example in the tech sector, recent Snowden relevations have showed us the real relationship the government has with Google, (not to mention being an initial investor/founding partner) Microsoft, Facebook, and other tech giants. It is naive to believe that the organization called the US Government, possibly the most powerful in the world, created the internet, but then allowed it to be dominated by 'whiz kids' from their garages (mostly from California). The 'Disneyland' and 'Hollywood' model is uniquely Californian. But is the economy really a potamkin village, fuelled by these dreams? When your car runs out of gas - you cannot keep going based on hope and love alone. Or is it as simple as a demographic shift, combined with environmental and other factors?
Checkout the data from a report titled "The California Exodus" [13]:
For decades after World War II, California was a destination for Americans in search of a better life. In many people’s minds, it was the state with more jobs, more space, more sunlight, and more opportunity. They voted with their feet, and California grew spectacularly (its population increased by 137 percent between 1960 and 2010). However, this golden age of migration into the state is over. For the past two decades, California has been sending more people to other American states than it receives from them. Since 1990, the state has lost nearly 3.4 million residents through this migration.
This study describes the great ongoing California exodus, using data from the Census, the Internal Revenue Service, the state’s Department of Finance, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and other sources. We map in detail where in California the migrants come from, and where they go when they leave the state. We then analyze the data to determine the likely causes of California’s decline and the lessons that its decline holds for other states.The data show a pattern of movement over the past decade from California mainly to states in the western and southern U.S.: Texas, Nevada, and Arizona, in that order, are the top magnet states. Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Idaho, and Utah follow. Rounding out the top ten are two southern states: Georgia and South Carolina.
Water Concerns
Recently there is a quiet exodus from California from those who are concerned about the water situation, that it will eventually collapse the real estate market. From Intellihub [14]:
With over ten percent of the U.S. population living in California a new problem is emerging as the wet season fell short of delivering adequate rainfall to sustain the populace. In fact snowpack and groundwater levels are now at historic lows and it has even been admitted that the state only has a 1-year supply of water left for residents to consume before California officially becomes a dust bowl.
Shockingly according to NASA satellite data water levels in just two area river basins were “34 million acre-feet below normal in 2014? showing the vast extent of the problem, as reported by the LA Times [15] in a recent piece. Moreover the report concluded that the state has been losing “12 million acre-feet of total water yearly since 2011? which is not good by any means.
What's interesting, is that it was mostly environmental factors, i.e. Good Weather, and lack of rain, that brought so many to California willing to pay the high "Sunshine Tax." In other words, the lack of water is correlated with the good weather. It is a desert climate. Of course, in recent years it has gotten worse, due to a long term trend of more people living in California, overdevelopment, rampant pollution, and climate change. LA was able to get rid of the smog - you can see the foothills again!
And let's think about this like a Californian - if Anthony Kiedis, General Atomics, the Chemtrail program, and Arnold Schwarzenegger can't make it rain, it doesn't look good.
Radiationgate
The water situation is nothing compared to the radiation in the water, air, and food coming from Japan since 2011. Already much of the country has boycotted foods and wines from California. But try telling that to a SoCal native, even considering that the swallows didn't come to San Juan Capistrano and that scientists are saying that the Pacific ocean is dying and we can be on the verge of an Extinction Level Event.
Williams Lake Tribune columnist Diana French [16], Jan 13, 2015 (emphasis added): Out of sight is out of mind. Those of us living in the Interior might not know or care that sea creatures are sick, dying or disappearing at an alarming rate all along the Pacific coast. There are dying oysters, bleeding herring, melting star fish, hungry Orcas and sick seals. The latest are dead seabirds… Some blame ocean acidification for the devastation, others wonder if it’s radiation fallout from Fukushima. Whatever, it might be helpful to find the cause before all the creatures are gone.
University of California Santa Barbara [17], Jan 15, 2015: A consortium of scientists, including UC Santa Barbara’s Douglas McCauley, has found that the same patterns that led to the collapse of wildlife populations on land are now occurring in the sea… Their findings are published today in the journal Science… “All signs indicate that we may be initiating a marine industrial revolution,” [McCauley] said. “We are setting ourselves up in the oceans to replay the process of wildlife Armageddon that we engineered on land.”
New York Times [18], Jan 15, 2015: A team of scientists… has concluded that humans are on the verge of causing unprecedented damage to the oceans and the animals living in them. “We may be sitting on a precipice of a major extinction event,” said Douglas J. McCauley, an ecologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an author of the new research, which was published on Thursday in the journal Science.
When these health conscious individuals learn the teratogenic effects caused by radiation not only in the environment, but in the products such as Spinach and other greens coming from Organic farms in the north, they will change their thinking, and probably move.
So what is the key information - why this isn't on the nightly news? Why don't our radiation networks [19] that we built during our period of paranoia and Russophobia sound alarm bells? Simply because most of the stations on the west coast have been 'decommissioned' or are 'under repair - indefinately' [20] and the EPA under the guidance of President Obama has raised the acceptable levels of radiation by thousands of percent. [21]
Investors hang on to your hats - and beware of the looming 'perfect storm' (demographic shift, environmental problems, economic issues) that will change California forever.