Within about 30 days, Charlie and I will have traversed virtually the entire length of California, from Yreka on the north to Chula Vista on the south, approximately 800 miles.
Most of that trip will have been accomplished on Interstate 5, and, to be honest, it’s a pretty boring ride. About two-thirds of the trip traverses agricultural lands…
…and the rest follows wide concrete rivers through heavily urbanized cities.
It’s quite a contrast.
And, unfortunately, pretty much none of our route allows a view of the things that California is famous for: majestic mountains, Redwood forests, spectacular seascapes, and pristine deserts. (Excuse me, I almost forgot…we did pass Mount Shasta!)
If you’re a native Californian like me, you take for granted the wonderfulness of your state. Sure, costs are high, but that’s what happens when you’ve got 36 million people competing for homes, jobs, restaurants, RV park sites, etc. There’s a reason all those humans want to be here.
Just to use an example, on January 1st of any year, from my home in Southern California, I could decide to: surf (60 miles); water ski (5 miles); snow ski (70 miles); golf (hundreds of courses within 100 mile radius); dune buggy in the desert (70 miles); sky dive (5 miles; go deep sea fishing (90 miles); go night-clubbing in Hollywood; attend a USC, UCLA, Rams or Chargers football game or a Lakers or Clippers basketball game or an Anaheim Ducks or LA Kings hockey game (50 to 100 miles); go to Disneyland (50 miles); or watch, in person, the Rose Parade.
Or, I could do a couple of those things, in the same day.
And, the weather would be (routinely) 65 to 80 degrees and sunny. In the Winter.
That’s pretty hard to beat. In fact, it can’t be beat…anywhere.
A lot of people are jealous of California and the people who live there, and take great pains to put-down the place. I recall being in the military, in basic training, when young men of all walks of life were thrown together. Invariably, there would be a guy, or group of guys, who would target Californians with verbal abuse: typically, we were all called “fags”, and, typically, the name-callers were rednecks from southern states where there was nothing to do except drink beer, shoot guns in the woods… or speed around in a pick-up truck with friends, drinking beer and shooting guns. “You know you’re a redneck when…”
More recently, there is a political component to the derision of Californians. Somehow, in some folks’ minds, California stands as an example of everything that is wrong with America. I’ve run into people in my RV travels who refuse to set foot in California, as if it is home to the plague, leprosy, or worse. Maybe they’re afraid that they might catch homosexuality, become liberal, or have to rub shoulders with immigrants or, worse, those pesky Democrats who are totally fucking up the place.
No doubt: taxes are high in California. In fact, it is a prime reason that Charlie and I are moving to Nevada now that we are retired. On the other hand, the level of infrastructure and quality of life is high in most Californian communities, creating an environment where business thrives. This is what the taxes pay for.
Interestingly, the Republican Party, which “everyone knows” is all about business development, is a non-player in Californian politics, and President Trump can’t go one day without bad-mouthing the State, complaining about how “Tax and Spend Liberals” are killing business there. And, yet…
California’s economy is the fifth largest in the world!
(I’m waiting for some laissez faire Republican to explain that.)
The state’s gross domestic product is now $2.74 trillion, making it larger than all but four nations on earth: China, Japan, Germany and…the United States itself. As a matter of fact, California’s state economy is seven times as large as that of the country of Norway.
I bring up that factoid because President Trump, in his infamous harangue about immigrants from “shithole countries” in January, 2018 said that “we should have more people from places like Norway”.
California’s vibrant economy is quite diverse. Not many people know this, but the state is the Nation’s leader in: dairy products; tourism; almonds; tech industries; table grapes; solar production; strawberries; entertainment; 71 percent of the head lettuce in the U.S.; and, half of the world’s supply of processed tomatoes…among other things. Defense industry spending is also huge in California.
The other thing about California that is diverse is demographics: it is a “minority-majority” state. This means that the non-Hispanic Caucasian component of the population (i.e. comprising those pasty white people like me) is a minority faction in the State. California has the largest “minority” population of all 50 states, almost 22 million persons comprised of 39 percent Hispanic, 6.5 percent Black, 15 percent Oriental. The state is also suspected of being the leader in undocumented immigrants who flee (usually north) looking for jobs.
Very few Norwegians have immigrated to California, relatively speaking.
And, yet, despite all of the minority population, the illegal immigrants, the fact that both U.S. Senators are women (including a Black one!), the infestation of Democrats, homosexuals, and liberals… and the lack of Norwegians…the Californian economic engine is a veritable dynamo driving the U.S. economy… comprising almost 20 percent of America’s gross national product.
(Fact: Charlie and I live on a small cul-de-sac in a well-to-do golf course community in Southern California. Among our neighbors are: a Black urologist; a British lawyer; a retired Japanese thoracic surgeon; and a retired neurosurgeon who is the son of Holocaust survivors. Our long-time family doctor is a Jordanian-American, Charlie’s cardiologist is a Hispanic-American, our family dentist was born in India, and my orthopedic surgeon is a Moroccan-American. Among Charlie’s business clients are: a Hispanic pest control expert; a Cuban-American lady who helps her doctor husband run an Urgent Care facility; a Greek-Canadian husband and wife team who own a very successful beauty salon; an Israeli-American lady who owns a commercial printing business; two Latino brothers who each own and operate tire shops; a Vietnamese couple who own and operate a nail salon and a restaurant; and a Nicaraguan lady who runs a modest home cleaning empire. Our house cleaning lady is a legal immigrant from Tijuana, and her husband, who is a house painter, is an illegal immigrant.)
It is hard not to draw the conclusion that DIVERSITY is helping California out-achieve all of the other U.S. states and most nations in business matters. It is the state with the most diverse demographics and the most diverse economy…no other state comes close.
And, yet, our President, egged on by his (no other way to say it…racist) political base, daily foments a scorched-earth campaign against…diversity…in these United States.
What gives with that? I thought he was all about making money?