Who killed California's economy?

There's a good article at Forbes by Joel Kotkin that tries to answer that. He points out 5 suspects: the governor, the public employees, the environmentalists, the business community, and the public.

He is not kind to any of them, because all of them are responsible.

About the public sector:

"Who needs an economy when you have fat pensions and almost unlimited political power? That's the mentality of California's 356,000 workers and their unions, who make up the best-organized, best-funded and most powerful interest group in the state."

The environmentalists have their share of the blame:

"In California today, everyone who makes a buck in the private sector--from developers and manufacturers to energy producers and farmers--cringes in fear of draconian regulations in the name of protecting the environment. The activists don't much care, since they get their money from trust-funders and their nonprofits."

The business community has failed to make its case:

"...so far California's business executives have failed to adopt a strategy to make this case to the public. Nor can they count on the largely clueless Republicans for support, since GOP members are often too narrowly identified as anti-tax and anti-immigration zealots to make much of a case with the mainstream voter."

And the general public has also failed:

"At some point Californians--the ones paying the bills and getting little in return--need to rouse themselves. The problem could be demographic. Over the past few years much of our middle class has fled the state, including a growing number to "dust bowl" states like Oklahoma, Texas and Arkansas from which so many Californians trace their roots."

But the governor won't be much help:

" Now he's posturing as the strong man who stands up to dominant liberal interests. But few on the left, few on the right or few in the middle take him seriously anymore. He may still earn acclaim from Manhattan media offices or Barack Obama's EPA, but in his home state he looks more an over-sized lame duck, quacking meaninglessly for the cameras. "

What needs to be said, though, is that what got California in trouble was excessive credit. They, like the United States, borrowed against the future without regard to having to pay back the money. They thought the party could go on forever, or at least it would be someone else's problem when the bills came due.

That is a terrible way to run a government. We have all been responsible at the national level. It is time we put a stop to it. Only we can do it.