Political Opinion

Maybe you should take a lesson from history, Detroit at one time could had claimed to have one of the largest economies’ in the world, but look at it’s current decline, and could the same be true for California, What would happen to Ca if Silicon Valley became the next Detroit, We just saw the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, Tech start ups are being starved for for cash and others are moving to Texas.

California or specifically their major cities may have peaked and the rollover has just began

But some will stick their head in the sand and not learn from history

image

1 Like

My Home State.

There are ghost towns in Ohio where former steel and coal plants have closed.

Aside from steel and coal, We also had Dayton Ohio

Dayton, Ohio: The Rise and Fall of a Former Industrial Juggernaut

Few people would recognize Dayton, Ohio of 2008 as the industrial powerhouse it was less than one hundred years ago. Once a beacon of manufacturing success, Dayton claimed more patents per capita than any other U.S. city in 1900. Its entrepreneurial climate nurtured innovators such Charles Kettering, inventor of the automobile self-starter and air travel pioneers Wilbur and Orville Wright. As the U.S. economy took off after World War II, Dayton was home to the largest concentration of General Motors employees outside of Michigan.

The city also nurtured companies that would became stalwarts on the Fortune 500, including National Cash Register (NCR), Mead Paper Company, business forms companies Standard Register and Reynolds and Reynolds, Dayco and Phillips Industries. To put this in context, just 14 U.S. cities could claim six or more Fortune 500 headquarters in 2007. Not a bad performance for an urban area that peaked as the 40th largest city in the U.S. in 1940.

These early industrialists were more than just business men. They were also visionaries. The founder of NCR, John H. Patterson, is widely credited with laying the foundation for the first modern factory system, pioneering the basic principles that still drive much of modern advertising, and redefining the relationship between labor and management.

NCR may also have been America’s first truly global business. “The cash register,” writes Patterson biographer Samuel Crowther, “is the first American machine which can claim that on it the sun has never set.” Even as Patterson was toiling away in a little shop in Dayton, cash “registers were being sold in England and Australia.” The company’s first non-US sales office was established in England in 1885 and its first European factory was established in Germany in 1903.

It’s difficult to underestimate Patterson’s influence on American industry. By 1930, an estimated one-sixth of all U.S. corporate executives had either been an executive at NCR or been part of Patterson’s management training programs. Among NCR’s alumni were IBM’s visionary CEO Thomas Watson as well as the presidents of Packard Motor Car Company, Toledo Scale, Delco (now Delphi) and dozens of others.

In contrast to Detroit the city, California the state does not rely on one industry for its survival.

Despite all the grandstanding, Califorina still being among the top 5 economies in the world is a major accomplishment given the poor numbers some of you are reporting

We can only wait the final outcome from those numbers you posted.

California is a big state with lots of industries and major ports, but what are the top industries

  1. Is Agriculture , and if you know anything about farming, it takes far less people to work a farm than it did 100 years ago, big money maker but, not much growth

  2. is the Film/TV industry, and this industry is clearly facing it’s Detroit moment.

  3. is Tourism , those high gas prices are not exactly rolling out the red carpet to new tourist, an there also seems to be little growth potential

  4. is Tech, or specially Silicon Valley, and as discussed in earlier post, this could also be another Detroit just waiting to happen, as cheap money dries up, moving operations to more tax friendly states will be needed just for some start ups to survive. The big boys like Google and Apple will hang around a while longer but sooner or later the need to keep show profits for investors will force these giants to move on as well

We call California a blue state, but take out Los Angeles and San Francisco, and California becomes a very red state, in fact take away the largest city in any blue state and that state becomes red.

image

1 Like

Seeing all that red, you’d think they’d be dominating state politics

lot of Republicans are on this list, They say Cali been in decline for over 30yrs now

Your President has speech writers, advisors, analysts, all sorts of guys whispering in his ear (maybe shouting if he’s like me with hearing and age) - but one thing I will take a wild guess at:-
Someone gets paid to do a little SM.

alzheimer’s disease (deliberately not capitalized) - your diagnosis is perhaps based on your experience.

My own experience of that particular evil is that I’m not qualified to know when a person is suffering from same or maybe facing an impediment that we all hope to encounter - senior moments.

Edit:
There is a reasonable chance that you guys in the US will get to choose between a combined age of 160 years in the near future - what is so bad I wonder.

1 Like

California has a reputation for progressive politics, California proves it’s not as liberal as people think, See Dennis’s map and the state governors list I posted.

What Are The Biggest Industries In California?

The film industry contributes billions to the economy of California annually.

California has one of the largest economies in the United States. Were it to be compared to the world economies, this state would rank 5th as it favorably competes with countries such as Japan, Germany, and China. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, California has a GDP of $3 trillion. Nicknamed the Golden State, it contributes 14% of the economy of the United States. It also possesses one of the largest workforces in the US comprising of 14 million employees. California’s industrial success is linked to the presence of several technology-intensive manufacturing industries and the booming film industry. The fastest-growing industries in the state are healthcare, construction, technology, hospitality, and agriculture. However, the biggest industries in California are agriculture, film industry, and services sector (including tourism).

Agriculture

California is the leading state in the US in terms of income derived from agricultural activities. This sector also provides 10% of the state’s labor force. Out of about 99 million acres of land occupied by the State, 25 million acres have been dedicated to farmland. Part of the land used for farming is an area of 500,000 acres on the Colorado Desert. The success of this sector is associated with the state’s long growing season as well as the fertile soil. Additionally, most of the land is irrigated which results in the stability in the farming activities. The popular crops cultivated in California include kiwi fruit, lettuce, apricots, pistachios, olives, figs, almonds, oranges, walnuts, nectarines, prunes, and dates. Among the 50 American states, California is the leading producer of grapes, lemons, plums, watermelons, strawberries, avocados, and peaches. In the production of oranges, only Florida produces more oranges compared to California. The agricultural products in California are utilized for both consumption and exports. The exports account for one-fifth of the state’s income. The main cash products in California are milk, grapes, cotton, and milk.

Services

The services sector in California comprises of professional and business services, education and health services, financial activities, and leisure and hospitality (tourism). With regards to the financial services, the state hosts some of the largest banks in the US such as Wells Fargo, Charles Swab Corporation, Silicon Valley Bank, and CIT bank. There are also varieties of businesses being operated in the state of California. More specifically, the state has 4 million small businesses that employ nearly half of the state’s workforce. The services sector also includes the education sector. The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and the University of California are the largest universities in California. These two universities contribute a GDP of $120 billion annually to the state’s economy.

Film

California’s film industry is booming with the presence of Hollywood and Disneyland being the major success driving factors. Production of Hollywood movies provides a large chunk of the state’s revenue. In 2015, this sector contributed about $49 billion to California’s economy. Furthermore, there was creation of approximately 2.4 million job opportunities.

Manufacturing

Most of the manufacturing industries in California are technology-intensive. As a result, businesspersons who choose to operate in this sector must be ready to source for the high cost of doing business. This sector employs approximately 9.4% of California’s workforce. Industries in this sector deal in electronic computer manufacturing, software development, high-tech computers, and electronics. One of the state’s leading technology companies includes Western Digital which makes hard disk drives. Aerospace is also another significant component of California’s industrial sector. An example of a company in this field is Lockheed Martin Corp which dominates the aerospace industry. Some of the Fortune 1000 companies in California include Walmart, Hewlett Packard Enterprises, Aecom, Reliance Steel & Aluminium Company, and Apple among many more.

@Dennis2450 This comment had me thinking… Maybe it’s not as much Left against Right but Urban against Regions… Cities against Country…

As I have mentioned before, during the insidious lockdowns imposed in Australia (where they actually closed off the regions to city dwellers), I fled suburban Melbourne for acreage in a Dairy/Sheep grazing region about 200km (160miles) from the state capital.

Out here it is more like the Australia that I remember as a child in the 70’s… We haven’t got the melting pot of recent migration… Just generations of the original families that migrated from across the globe in the early 1900’s and have worked the land and livestock for the past century.

Almost an Old World / New World outlook on the world at large…

Many of the recent high cost living issues that plague high density suburban centres don’t exist out here… You are forced to live more off the land…

Most regional area’s across Australia are governed by Australia’s National Party. The Nationals are politically centre/right and are inline with regional issues, roads, communication, rural healthcare, responsible environmental issues… Not the over the top climate panic merchants Politicians prolific in the inner urban zones…

Our two major political opponents that control the cities, Liberal & Labor, the equivalent of your Democrat and Republican parties don’t get much of a show out here or anywhere in the bush…

@SmallPaul Please give us your take on any similarities in the state of Ohio?

Is the situation the same State side? Maybe this is where a component of the current divide can be found…

Totally agree. Have you ever thought about the fact that it might be companies within those states that make a state Left or Right, which also lobby the government for their personal interests. Look at the movie industry in California as an example. Just a thought.

It can also be progressive politics.

BTW: Ohio can still compete in other industries. I was just pointing out how cities that rely on just one industry can suffer, If Ohio were a sovereign country, it would be the 21st largest economy in the world ahead of Argentina and below Saudi Arabia.

A fact about America is that certain states can rival some of the largest economies in the world. Top 25

1 Like

Sticking to this point for a minute.

Large cities in a state often have Democrat mayors, large cities within a county of those states often have Democrat mayors, but, upper middle class and wealthy citizens in those counties tend to live in smaller cities and towns with Republican mayors

It doesn’t mean a Republican mayor can’t lead a major city.

There is a difference between a big city and a major city

List of mayors of the 50 largest cities in the United States

1 Like

@SmallPaul Same in Australia. Using the formula Australian Liberal Party = US Republican Party and Australian Labor Party = US Democrat Party, so you understand what I’m babbling on about…

The Liberal Party is generally voted for by the upper middle class up to the wealthy. The Labor Party is generally voted for by the lower class to the lower middle class which roughly displays the divide in the demographic of politics here in Australia.

Labor policies historically were aimed at the poor, welfare and Unions better than the Liberals while Liberal polices historically were aimed at the middle classes and up, more favourable for business and the wealthy.

One difference between the two ideologies when in Government is the internal politics within each Party. All Labor Ministers have to vote on all legislation as the leader of the party. There is no such thing as a conscious vote if you don’t agree with the Bill… You’d be frozen out of your Ministerial position.

With Liberals Ministers, you are free to cross the floor on all decisions on legislation… If you don’t agree with the Bill being put forward by your Party… You are free to vote for whichever side of the debate that is best for your constituents.

This ideology makes it harder for the Liberals (Right) to push difficult or culturally sensitive bills through the Australian Parliament…

Is the political system similar in the US?

1 Like

sounds about right except for this part

The politics are similar but are not the same, Australia have a better overall system, in my opinion

I’ll explain… Most political parties in the modern era, rule with very slim majorities… I’ll use the Australian Parliament, which is similar to the UK, Canada etc… as a rough example…

If Labor have say a majority of 2 or 3 seats… All Ministers are required to vote in the same direction, then bills are passed with comparative ease…

If Liberals put up a culturally sensitive bill, say something similar to the recent Roe Wade ruling in the United States… There is nothing stopping maybe 3 or 4 Ministers, who don’t agree with their parties proposal and cross the floor and vote against the bill with the Labor Party…

As you can see… Having a slim majority Government for the Liberals is no guarantee to get all of their policies through the parliament without some serious horse trading taking place…

Most Australian’s cannot get our heads around your Electoral College based voting system…

This would be determined by the political makeup of the city or state in the America, such as Republicans or Democrats. Keep in mind that each state is run much like a country.

so you can have a liberal or conservative state or city.

1 Like

It is a ruse to trick the American people into thinking they are involved.

I have to say this: Without the Electoral College voting system, your boy would never have been elected. so be appreciative. I had to. it’s all good

@SmallPaul Don’t look now, but we are actually discussing Politics… :beers:

2 Likes

As I mentioned before, politics and religion can drive people mad, crazy or make them do evil things, I’m not an exception to this rule. Except I won’t be doing anything evil. :v:

I can assure you that when Trump lost the elections, a lot of people in this thread went insane simultaneously. that describes American politics.

Another thing to keep in mind about American politics is that 90% of legislation is agenda-based and comes with a lot of money attached.

Fuc* Obama, Biden and all of them!
JUST MAKE MONEY!

1 Like

Happy Monday morning Everyone, hope you all had a great weekend

He is more your president than mine. The 2000s have been a sad century for US presidents, At this point, I would welcome back Jimmy Carter, now that is a low bar

That is absolutely what it is, we have two Americas, City and Rural, If you want a visual example just watch the movie Hunger Games, Someone here noted the wealth in the states around Washington DC, then you have the wealth of California at the other end of the country, those of us in the middle are left to fight for the scraps. That is the movie Hunger Games and we are clearly living in the backstory

I remember the civil rights marches of MLK, while the rural south had its problems, the real violence came in northern cities.

God help us