On Receiving another Request to Protest, Write a Letter, Give Money—Anything to Save the State Worker and His Program
I won’t quote all the statistics, but again, in general, California employees make considerably more on average than other state employees elsewhere. The result is that the current furious state employee is, in essence, saying, “All you lower-paid and unemployed taxpayers, now you better listen up: you must pay more taxes, even beyond the current highest rate in the nation, so that I, the far better paid and pensioned employee than you, can continue unquestioned in my current, far more important job.”
No more juice to squeeze…
On the tax side, California has the highest income tax rates in the country. Its gasoline and sales taxes are also the steepest. Prop 13 limitations keep the rates of property taxes competitive with other states, but the assessments on property are so high in California that often homeowners pay almost the same as many with lower real rates elsewhere. Some 3,500 Californians, mostly on the higher end of the income spectrum, are believed to be leaving per week, mostly fleeing to low or no-income-tax states. I assume their thinking is something like, “I can save $20,000 a year in taxes and my children won’t be going to public schools that score 46-48th in national rankings of the states in math and science.”
Barking at the moon
I have talked with a few students and employees over the last year and I think the angst behind the protests runs something like this. In sum, apparently state employees, teachers, and students believe that there is either (a) a “stash” of money somewhere that is unspent and could easily ease their pain (e.g.,” they” have all sorts of money and are lying to us about its undisclosed location); (b) we could raise income, sales, and gas taxes to even more record highs and encourage perhaps 4,000 a week to leave in consequence (e.g., why do some need BMWs or private planes when “we” need cheaper tuition?); (c) the 1% who pay about 50% of the state income tax burden could easily pay 80-90% of it (e.g., I get along on $50,000, so why can’t someone who makes $300,000 give $250,000 of it to meet “our” needs?); (d) we could renounce our debts to state bond holders (if they have excess cash to buy bonds, why are they so greedy not to give “us” some of it?) and use the savings for more subsidies, entitlements, and salaries (without my job at the DMV, prison, school (fill in the blanks), the rest of you could not survive.)
Note lost in the present “I accuse” acrimony (cf. Greece) is any serious, concrete plan of how to make up the budget shortfall. Completely absent is any recognition that we are the highest taxed state populace in the country, and yet have some of the most dismal infrastructure and schools to show for it. And that is logical, not a paradox.
Again, the Greek model
In the long run, we all know the medicine: cut drastically state expenditure by freezing employment and salaries, and cut red-tape, give tax cuts and incentives for businesses to stay in, or move to, the state to increase the number of jobs and create more wealth. But in the short term, here are some possible discussion points, on both revenue and expenditure, that we are not allowed to talk about in the current conundrum:
Place a total limit of $250,000 on all state salaries, including income from overtime and pensions. Radically curtail the number of administrators in both public schools and the state university system (return most to the classroom). Eliminate half of the state boards, and bar term-limited politicians from serving on them. Open up more gas, oil, mineral, and timber land. Restore water to central valley farming. Monitor for tax purposes the many billions sent out of state to Latin America, tax-free, by California residents who are illegally residing in the state. Focus on the large incomes of a few Californians that are manipulated to be taxed at the capital gains rate rather than the income tax rate. Monitor the vast underground market of cash sales transactions that are not taxed at all, and the general noncompliance with state revenue laws of open air markets, roadside food vendors, and off the books day workers. Go after the many millions who ignore traditional fees and assessments on everything from proper zoning laws, statutes requiring single family occupant homes; liens; car registration, etc. Reexamine the abuse of state disability and unemployment entitlements by those who work off the books for cash or are capable of working but are not currently.
What we do know
Statism and spiraling public sector employment and entitlement (once again cf. southern Europe) alter the public mindset (see Aristophanes’ Knights or Wasps).
When one assumes the state (or ‘they’) is responsible for all good things, then natural, quite interconnected corollaries follow.
Radical environmentalism is usually the creed of either the hyper-wealthy or the tenured state employee who has lost appreciation that real money does not just appear in the mailbox, but must be created in a rather cruel, unforgiving world.
Utopianism ensures that anything good (and life in the U.S. is very good) is really not ever good enough, because it is not quite perfect.
Equality of result is a natural impulse, since public employment and entitlement mean spiraling private sector taxes, which mean someone else does not deserve to keep what they earn.
Pacifism follows, since military expenditure diverts needed money from entitlement.
Moral relativism is the shared creed, since absolute rules and laws can at times be cruel and work to deny ever expanding appetites.
Coercive government is required to hunt down the lone wolf holdouts and to justify, big brother style, the sameness of culture and the elite bureaucracy that need not follow the rules it imposes on others.
Agnosticism and atheism become more popular as government assumes the role of deity and brags on its heaven on earth powers (what evil God would dare allow inequality on earth?). The government check is far better than the Sunday service.
Depopulation eventually arrives as life is just too good to waste in getting up all nights with colicky babies and dirty diapers; adults (wrongly) assume the state, not children, will care for them in their “golden years” (cf. the August 2003 French rush to the beach for the annual state-subsidized vacation, as some 15,000 elderly were left behind to be roasted in their non-air-conditioned Paris apartments — at the very time the French government was damning the US for the supposed inhuman removal of Saddam Hussein.)
I think I just summed up southern Europe, Northern Europe in about a year, California in about five years, and the U.S. in about ten.
As usual, the wise Dr. Hanson speaks the truth.
The medicine is due, and it truly is a question of ‘when’ not ‘if’. And the longer it takes to put the necessary measures in place, the greater the pain and expense.
The alternative to taking the medicine is chaos.
Maybe Sean Penn will return to save Cali… God Help California!
“(a) a “stash” of money somewhere that is unspent and could easily ease their pain (e.g.,” they” have all sorts of money and are lying to us about its undisclosed location)”
The Democrats have won countless political victories because they have persuaded easily gullible voters that the money is readily available to fund the welfare state. We merely need to slightly increase the taxes of wealthy individuals like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. The reality, of course, is that there are simply not enough rich people to pick up the tab—and the very poor pay next to no taxes. This means middle class citizens, especially those earning their living in the private sector, must ultimately pay the bills.
“I think I just summed up southern Europe, Northern Europe in about a year, California in about five years, and the U.S. in about ten.”
California probably cannot be saved. I am nonetheless much more optimistic regarding the purple and red states. They cannot afford, however, to allow themselves to be conned by any dead cat economic bounce. Their citizens must relentlessly push for a sharp decrease in the size of their municipal and state governments. The odds are on their side. They simply have to stay focused.
There is no serious discussion in California to allow offshore oil drilling. What more do you need to know? The idiots are in the majority. It is quite obvious that the more difficult decisions will never be reached. California’s politicians barely possess the courage to modestly address the budget issues. That’s not good enough. The state desperately requires major surgery. It will be lucky to get a nail clipping.
My bugaboo is the bait-and-switch these people pull when their overblown budgets are highlighted. Point out that the school systems in California are badly overfunded, and you get an over-worked award-winning teacher who needs more money for her classroom, where *she* buys the books and the students learn lots. Never mind the reported several dozen or several hundred teachers in LA Unified who are paid to stay *away* from the classroom. They’re deemed unsuitable to teach (too many accusations of molestation, illiterate, incapable, etc.) but the district can’t fire them, so they warehouse them. Some endlessly attend teacher training classes they’ll never pass, while others sit at home, waiting for a call from a supervisor who will ensure they’re staying at home.
So if the budget of the University system is in trouble, we raise student tuition. Could we cut the university staff? Of course not. The university system isn’t for the education of students: they’re there to pay money to the state, so that the employees can collect paychecks, pensions, and benefits. And so it continues.
The obvious conclusion is that the people running the system and their minions are crazy or really dumb. Or else why would they not be able to see how unsustainable it is? But I have been thinking about this over the last few days and that’s not the case. They know very well what the fiscal situation is, and that it is a seriousl threat to them; so they agitate even harder to maintain control over resources. They figure they will bluff and bluster their way through, and hope that soon economic recovery will come and they can demand even more rather than trying to get back what they lost in the lean times. As a bonus they’ll try to take credit for creating the recovery to keep themselves in power for a long time.
I agree with everything you stated, Mr. Hanson.
If I may, I also would like to add some: All these so-called celebrities, are they really paying their fare share? There is not a day to go by, where I read news that the IRS are going after so-and-so, because they owe $13 million+ in backtaxes.
These youngsters currently rioting are pretty pathetic, those are these ‘ober gescheit’ people turning out mostly as ‘progressives’; I guess common sense has never been part of their vocabulary.
“I think I just summed up southern Europe, Northern Europe in about a year, California in about five years, and the U.S. in about ten.”
Three days a week I think that since the cries of pain from the taxpayer supported nobility don’t really impress former home owners or unemployed folks living hand to mouth, we’ll finally turn it around here in the U.S. Three more days of the week I think that since God is not mocked we’ve just starting paying for the mocking popularized by the cognoscenti.
Sundays, I think VDH has already written a history of our demise but can’t find a publisher other than the ARE folks in Va. Beach.
Regards
But that near future will be much worse, because the majority in Europe and the US are not seeing this reality.
It think you can add exploding crime rates to the list a mega trend we have seen happening across the West after WW II, when the concept of private ownership eroded.
The solutions presented in the second paragraph of the “Again, the Greek model” section will never work, because they require the state and local governments to simultaneously become stripped-down and more efficient. Who can imagine such a thing? Who could possibly oversee such change? Certainly not the Terminator (who appears to be more of an Extender and Expander when it comes to government).
Shutting down underground sales transactions to increase sales tax collections would require massive policing while earning the wrath of both sellers and buyers. Eliminating under-the-table employment would be even more difficult.
California will muddle along for another year or so, massively increase its debt and pension obligations, and then appeal to the federal government for successive bailouts totalling hundreds of billions of dollars. Then, a true domino effect will be seen when another ten or twenty states do the same.
I fear, my dear cyberfriend, VDH…that you are shouting from the bottom of a well.
Nobody can hear you, VDH…but you can see more stars from there.
The entrenched media will bury the truth, distort the story and create a fiction to further dig our well. We have nearly reached the bottom notch. Isn’t the night sky wondrous, though?
When people in Hollywood go right wing politically they’re shunned.
When we Right Wingers speak up in liberal circles we’re derided.
I think you’re asking for it from academia. But then you’ve written glowingly about Generals who attack.
I’m looking forward to your new book, ‘The Father Of Us All.’
Dear Prof. Hanson,
Your words of wisdom in god’s ears as the saying goes in Europe.
In my over seven years at a campus of the UC system, I have regularly taught 5 courses per academic year which in my case is divided into 3 quarters. Plus numerous independent studies of undergraduate students per quarter, and the supervision of doctoral students. In addition, in 7 years I have never canceled a single class for whatever reason. And, I teach most of my classes at 8am in the morning (I commute for about an hour each way), in parts because I am an early morning person, in parts due to the fact that our campus has apparently reduced the number of large class rooms. Even if we wish, we couldn’t teach as many large classes as the number of students trying to enroll would suggest. And, I enjoy all of my teaching.
It is my understanding, and please forgive me if as a non-American I get the peculiarities of the Californian educational system wrong, that the UC system is the research branch, whereas the CSU system is a non-research focused branch of the higher education system in California. Accordingly, didn’t professors in that latter branch, like yourself, select to teach more than their colleagues at the UC system? Freedom of choice in this country would allow anybody unhappy in his university system to move to another university, including private ones, wouldn’t it?
While I agree with your assessment of the role of administrators etc., I think you point regards the number of classes taught in the various universities system is a cheap one. More interesting would be to compare disciplines, for example the sciences in the UC system often teach only 1-2 classes per academic year, whereas the humanities are where the bulk of students is taught, not by TAs but by professors (including discussion sections), well at least at my university.
In addition, UC faculty is under contractual obligation to conduct research (beside administrative tasks), means in the humanities to publish primarily books. The latter are what counts when it comes to both tenure and regular post-tenure reviews, the latter take place every three years, and all this despite the fact that many UC libraries have basically stopped buying monographs. If you don’t research and publish, your teaching load goes up, eventually even to the 9 courses per year that are, again to the standard of my humble knowledge, the standard in the Californian higher education system. Yet how often this happens, I have no idea about; but that would be a question of enforcing existing procedures.
Beside the administrators, one could also add the mushrooming of counseling services for students to the increasing costs of operating a campus.
Finally, as it would be easy to find out, the State of California hasn’t contributed for many years a penny to the pension provision of the UC system. And, it doesn’t even have, to the best of my knowledge, a legal obligation to do so, though that is, of course, debated not least among many UC faculty and staff.
Yours faithfully
It’s not often we learn the easy way.
Dr. Hanson:
Reading the comments, I occasionally come across those who write, their self righteous sneers clearly visible between the lines “Oh yeah? If things are so bad, why don’t I see you making any suggestions to improve things?” “So there! Nyah!” is also plainly implied. The solutions to the problems you present are so apparent (to anyone with common sense and a molecule of fiscal sanity) that no specific improvement suggestion is necessary. In this article, you’ve clearly eliminated any reason for complaint.
College costs are indeed exceeding reality, for all the reasons you suggest and more. It should be clear to anyone that college is not for everyone. It surely is to those of us who teach high school. Some people just do not have the intellectual capacity to do academic work of the quantity and quality required of college students (where college is not dumbed down to a 7th grade level). Others have that capacity, but have been slackers, to one debilitating degree or another, for so long that upon graduation from high school, the best decade of their lives, working the counter at McDonald’s (which is an honorable thing to do, by the way) would greatly tax their motivation and abilities. There is no Lake Wobegon where everyone is above average. Those who suggest that we are becoming an entirely white collar, computer driven work force apparently forget that Star Trek replicator technology is even a bit further off than cheap and plentiful wind and solar energy and 500 mile range electric car batteries, and even those holy grails of green tech require the dirt under the fingernails work of innumerable people who actually know how to envision things and build and maintain them rather than discoursing on their social implications.
Yet some have the utopian idea that everyone should be able to attend college and damn the expense. President Obama not only wants this, he wants the government to entirely take over the student loan industry. Thus do we have, on most campuses, huge remediation departments to help students who can barely write a 7th grade essay or do basic math. Thus do we have grade inflation and countless college graduates who, after 5-7 years of college, can barely function on a high school level. I’ve seen more than my fair share of holders of master’s degrees and doctorates who are so obviously lacking in professional knowledge, demeanor and common sense as to be convincing evidence that reality is a Superman comic and we’re all living in Bizarro world.
The more students that attend college spur demand for more facilities and staff–particularly administrative and support staff–which in turn spurs demand for less teaching time for terribly important and overworked tenured professors, which causes tuition increases to hire more professors and graduate teaching assistants and more administrators to, well, administrate, which spurs demand for more and more college loans to more students to pay for all of this, which spurs demand for more governmental intervention, which spurs demand for more and more unqualified and incapable students, and the great socialist wheel just keeps on turning.
Of late I’ve also seen the progressive movement spreading the idea that education, including college education, is a right. Of course they mean a right to be thoroughly indoctrinated in socialist propaganda at the expense of people who work for a living. There is not–cannot be–such a right, but a privilege Americans–unlike most other nations–have traditionally been willing to pay to ensure an educated populace that supports American, democratic ideals of freedom and limited government, thus ensuring a working, responsible populace able to support the education of future generations. Perhaps the socialists fear that the day is fast approaching when Americans will not be willing to pay for the transformation of children into good little communists, so they’re trying to seize as many of the levers of power as quickly as possible to prevent the unenlightened public from having any choice in the matter.
The only reason other nations have been able to play juvenile socialist games for so long is that America has been the sole democratic adult on the planet, propping them up through a seemingly unlimited supply of foreign aid, including military protection, for far too long. Many Europeans are now coming to understand that America cannot have the luxury of behaving like them, for if America does convert to their ideals, there will be no money to support them in the decadent lifestyles to which they have become accustomed, to say nothing of the fact that the barbaric, insatiable and quite depraved hosts of Hell (who have been foolishly invited to immigrate to their nations) are very likely to overrun their socialist paradises when the ugly Americans can no longer afford to defend the world. If we–and they–do not get our houses in order, in short order, 15,000 dead elderly Frenchmen may seem like the good old days.
The solution for academia and America is, in many ways, quite simple. Spend only within our means. Pay market wages and hire only those public employees as are absolutely necessary, and not one more. Establish fair–not confiscatory–labor laws rational in a free market and abolish unions. Require all teachers to teach first, research and publish second or not at all. Value and reward merit; discourage and punish sloth. Remove government from any and every endeavor unless the people absolutely cannot accomplish it for themselves. Shrink the parasitical public sector and greatly expand the wealth producing private sector. The federal government has no business in education, and state governments have only slightly more.
Like you, Dr. Hanson, I’ve suggested some general solutions to our problems. Tragic that such common sense ideas even need to be said. Like you, I expect to see a completely failed California within the next decade. I hope that the rest of America will learn the necessary lessons from that nearly inevitable failure and not blindly rush off the same cliff.
Why is it these institutions are never satisfied with the facilities they have? Preceding generations received world class educations in deary old buildings without luxury. But the stadium is never good enough, the laboratories are too old, the swimming pools and rec centers have become the envy of middle eastern royalty and of course the modular building is unacceptable for the professor’s office.
Undergrads got solid educations in the basic forms of humanities, sciences and engineering without splintering off into “Sustainable this, Environmental that, Multicultural -you name it- specialties and so forth. CSU’s and UC’s are constantly expanding these facilities and programs and you wonder what value some of it really has.
Of course there are always cryptic rationalizations of money spent to build these facilities and administer the programs but in the end it all comes out of mom, dad and the neighbor’s pocket. We can’t live the Pat Brown California Dream on Mexifornia budgets.
We took a wrong turn sometime during the 60′s. Everything is a double edged sword. Even mankind’s ancient dream of a life free of drudgery. California was the obvious place to try and build Utopia. Problem is, it is man’s lot to suffer. We can fool ourselves otherwise for brief periods, but the bill always comes due. There is no ultimate solution to this problem. Mastering that painful truth is the razor’s edge between freedom and responsibility that all civilizations live or die upon. Have we, with all our access to the record of humanity’s historical experience, learned this lesson? As the numbers that Prof. Hanson cite’s here, and the entrenched top-heaviness of our institutions suggest, apparently not. Given California’s depressing fall, its hard to believe that any sane person can still be arguing in favor of more government, more entitlements, more taxes… But the corrupt always keep grasping for more, and the ideologues continue to chant their deluded chorus…
David Brooks wrote a thoughtful article today (NYT ‘The Wall-Mart Hippies’) likening the Tea-Partiers to the utopian movements of the 60′s. But I disagree with some of his premises. He wrote “The people we loosely call the Tea Partiers also want to destroy the establishment” as did the New Left in the 60′s. I think its more accurate to say that the New Left STILL wants to destroy the establishment by undermining democracy and free-markets, whereas the Tea-Partiers (and other conservative / libertarian minded Americans) want to RESTORE the establishment. They want less Keynes and more Hayek, the want smaller, less intrusive government and entrenched bureaucracy, they reject the anti-American internationalism of the UN and other world bodies, they want an assertive foreign policy that does not cede to terrorists and autocrats… in short, they just want the U.S. Constitution (or put another way, a little common sense.)
Brooks makes another common error: He writes “Both movements are built on the assumption that the people are pure and virtuous and that evil is introduced into society by corrupt elites…” This is only partly correct. Most Tea-Partiers self-identify as ‘Conservative’ and the Conservative worldview assumes that man is inherently selfish, greedy and aggressive. And that it is only through long and arduous education (much of it in the school of hard knocks) that we learn to overcome these egotistical impulses and pursue our self-interest in ways that enhance the common good. Conservatives, by and large, understand that basic truth.
He accuses both sides of falling for conspiracy theories. I can only say that it is no ‘theory’ that Obama is part of the New Left’s efforts to subvert democracy and bend American economic power to the serrvice of leftist global governance. It is a fact. Just look at his track record so far, and the sorry bunch of ideologues he has always surrounded himself with.
Brooks believes that the Tea-Parties have no over-arching philosophy. I disagree. Rather I think that for the most part, Tea-Partiers embrace the Conservative principles I’ve mentioned, it’s just that they feel that the GOP has broken faith, that it no longer fully represents these principles, and so they reject it too. The key to restoring America therefore is for the GOP to reach out to the Tea-Partiers and demonstrate that it understand this, and for the Tea-Partiers to ‘trust but verify’. That is if he or she turns out to be a bum, vote ‘em out next time around. But keep voting! And keep voting Republican… (Really, there is no alternative but to force the GOP to reform itself and become the true guardians of the Founders transcendant widsom.
Above all we need a President who is prepared to take on the bureaucracies and the entrenched ideologues, and also offer an alternative that is clear-eyed and sober, but that taps into the well of optimism that still lies dormant deep in the American soul. It will be an epic battle, both painful and exhilarating. But it must be undertaken if we are to pass on the good things we inherited.
Truth be told, the only school worth its weight in its high tuition bill is Caltech-California Institute of Technology. A tuition I was pleased to pay as they fulfilled their contract as educators. NO propagandists need apply.
It is one of 2 ! schools in the US system(aside from MIT)where merit takes precedence above everything else in the admission process; where parents can’t grease the skids for their ‘deserving’ kiddies; and where substance truly trumps style.Don’t believe me,fine. Just read Dan Golden’s explosive book, ‘The Price for Admission’ and see for yourselves.
Therefore, IF the public system, in wholly bankrupt CA, wants to up its entitlements, at the VERY least they should trash their quota system; throw out the multicultural garbage; and quit offering propaganda courses masquerading as hard core scholarship.
As for the other public employed piggies – go on a diet!!
The biggest question is whether Obama will use federal money (TARP or stimulus) to bail out California. If he does (and I believe he will), the entire country will explode in indignation.
Coming to think of it, shouldn’t Obama be paying more attention to what is happening in Cali, instead of pushing his idiotic healthcare plan?
P.S. Visit my blog: hyphenatedamericans.blogspot.com
I think California’s ‘Waterloo ‘ will come sooner than Obama’s. Obama is done in 2012.
From the NY times
The big need now is to get another slug of fiscal aid to the states. Without another infusion, layoffs, on the wane in the private sector, will shift to the public sector. And as the states tighten, the private sector would be squeezed anew because lower state spending and higher state taxes would mean less consumer spending.
We are approaching a time when the blue states, many sinking by the bow, will demand the red and purple states bail them out. If there is ever to be a second American Civil War, it will start then.
Gylippus says this all started in the 60s. Actually, it probably began a lot earlier than that. Saul Alinsky wrote “Reveille for Radicals” in 1944 and the hard core Left had already pushed major changes through the New deal. What happened in the 60s was a full-scale assault by the KGB through the many useful idiots in the American Left with the blueprint laid out in “Rules for Radicals”.
We are back where we were in the middle Seventies when New York was failing and Jerry Ford refused to bail them out. The people who resist the current tide know what must be done and have shown a willingness to elect people to office to do it, but the Left will not give up without a fight. The American Revolution succeeded with never more than a third of the people supporting it. This time, I believe the odds are better, but it may be a damned near run thing.
VDH:
“I think I just summed up southern Europe, Northern Europe in about a year, California in about five years, and the U.S. in about ten.”
If you’re right, then all the more reason to re-establish the Confederate States of America, with very strict immigration policies.
I wonder how many millions of dollars and wasted hours could be saved by eliminating the panopoly of ‘victim studies’, catering to feminists, various aggrieved minorities, American history revisionists, and the rest of the collection of whiners and moaners currently thriving in the university system? In this age of economic upheaval, the tax paying citizens of California should demand that the university expunge some of the crap currently masquerading as higher education from the university curriculum. And those displaced ‘educators’ whose pet grievances are dumped should be encouraged to enter politics which is a more appropriate arena for their bitching and moaning. Or find some useful employment.
I don’t see the problem. Obama will have the federal government take over California and ship them printing presses and plates from the treasury. All university jobs will become federal positions. Salaries will go up and tuition will be free. Students will only need to show their Party Cards to get meals. Problem solved. Welcome to academic utopia!
IMPEACH OBAMA!!!!
1) Is it that surprizing that the UC system people (teachers and admin) are dedicated Democrat voters, and that also, in the recent elections have contributed in % 97 to Obama campaign?
2) and now a particular case: wasn’t Michelle Obama, this stellar rolwe model on the pay roll of an university hospital @ 260.000, job consisting in… gosh, comunity blah blah blah?
One year? 5? 10? It all happened YESTERDAY already. You didn’t see it?
No escaping Mad Max now without the minimum actions of:
1. Eliminate the Civil Service by firing 4 out of 5 sniveling servants.
2. Sunset all laws with a Robespierrean Council testing all rewrites for constitutionality.
3. Limit terms of all legislators by instituting capital punishment for service disloyal to the constituition.
None of that will happen. The fall, despite leaf-like dips and pauses, remains unstoppable.
I was in a corporate sales meeting ten years ago and we had several reps from California at the table. One woman rep was very upset because CA was about to start charging for junior colleges instead of it being free. We were all shcoked because every other state represented had some type of tuition charge. she and her husband were very well paid but felt it was an entitlement. 10 years later, it is all too clear why CA is in such trouble. Why our Federal government feels it is their responsibility to bail out a failed state is beyond the mind of we common sense people in flyover country. Pay for what you buy. If you can’t afford it, you don’t need it.
Dr. Hanson,
With regard academic cuts rather than the more approrpriate administrative cuts: As with government, the fat is always in a position to cut the muscle, and then say, “See, we told you it wouldn’t work!”
There are alternative ways to pay for and education. Did any of these protesters consider the GI Bill? God help California as a state and universities in general if the federal government tries to bail them out with my money.
George Bush spent way to much money. A Medicare Prescription plan and AIDS treatment in Africa as two examples. But he looks like a piker compared to the current administration.
We will be lucky if this doesn’t lead to the Second French Revolution.
Well, oneoftheworld, glad you enjoy teaching.
You’re in error on a couple of points and you should know better on a couple of others. I am a UC alum and lifelong Californian, so maybe I have a different perspective than you do.
The UC is nominally the research branch it is true. That said, so much of what is produced in the humanities at the UC doesn’t really deserve the name. It is politically correct garbage. Californians are getting bad value for their money and in case it hadn’t occurred to you, contracts can (and I’m suggesting should) change. Legal obligations to research can well be changed to obligations to teach. If you and your fellows really feel the need to research do it on your own time or go somewhere else.
And of course the state of California contributes to the pension plan. Your salary and benefits don’t just come from nowhere, do they? The fact is that the UC gets substantial subsidies from the state – from the state land that they reside on to scholarships that support the UC’s enrollment. I guess you’re not teaching economics are you?
In my opinion, whole departments need to cease to exist and they produce no economic value added – Black Studies, Women’s Studies, Asian-American Studies, Environmental Studies – I think you get my theme. Further, Proposition 209 should have decimated the grievance industry departments – Affirmative Action, etc. It didn’t and the voters will has been ignored by our employees. In general, large fractions of the Education Code need repealed, so that we can eliminate the administrators required to manage those requirements. Ditto any and all programs the cater to sexual preference or illegal aliens.
The gravy train is over.
Have a look at Don Victor’s handy-dandy new _Kiddie Selfservative Catechism_, Dr. Bones. Talk about “a swell read”!
Lo! All the evils of darkest Schwarzeneggerland are niftily assigned to eight pigeon holes: (I) radical environmentalism, (II) Utopianism, (III) equality of result, (IV) pacifism (?!), (V) moral relativism, (VI) coercive government, (VII) agnosticism and atheism (!?), and (VIII) depopulation.
However, the order of presentation is not immediately apparent. Your mechanical wind-up toy AEIdeologue would have begun with (VI), for instance, whereas most of the Little Friends of Eddie Burke LLC –and all the devotees of Leostraussianity–would prefer (V) or conceivably (II).
The item Rear-Col. Blimp banishes to the rear of the parade, “depopulation” understood somewhat unidiomatically, would be most extraordinary of all, were it taken in the ordinary vernacular sense. Wingnutettes and wingnuts who complain that there are too FEW of the Bad Poor are almost as hard to find as birds’ milk. (My guess is that Blimp does not give a hoot about the Fœtus Cult™ himself, but wanted to kindly toss ’em a bone. He then failed to mask his indifference adequately. But Father Zeus knows best.)
_Per contra_, and now that we have decided that this _Index Abominationum Prohibitorum_ was rather hastily and casually compiled, we may speculate with some confidence that the good colonel is especially allergic to “radical environmentalism.” A neocomradess who weighed her words more carefully than Blimp does would probably not care to give the impression that _finis Californiæ_ will be primarily the fault of the Sierra Club.[1]
As to the two _abominationes prohibitæ_ that I have stigmatized above, (VII) “agnosticism and atheism,” would be striking if one was quite sure Blimp is in earnest about it. Never till now has he soared so high aloft as to bring the far-flung provinces of Mythology into sight. But since it comes next-to-last, there must remain some suspicion that this, too, was stuck in chiefly to gratify other members of the pack Blimp drifts with.
The same cannot be true of (V) “pacifism,” however, for what makes Neocomrade Rear-Colonel V. D. H. Blimp worth attendin’ to at all is that oddball _geistige Militärismus_ peculiar to himself amongst the now neocomrades. Whatever else may be goin’ on here, Dr. Bones, the Muses and you and I ought to be pleased that AEI has not rotted all remembrance of it out of the Blimpian brainpan.
That said, though, does pacifism really belong in this galley at all? Schwarzeneggerland is not an independent State, to have its own foreign and aggression policies. Even if we take the P-word very loosely, I betcha (say) Vermont has many fewer murders and robberies per capita. We could also look at statistics on NRA membership, if available, to decide if Amendment II is less revered out there than elsewhere. I suspect not, but am prepared to be surprised.
***
Then there is the rest of the scribble, which does not seem to me to come to grips with the jugular, to address the ROOT evils of Schwarzeneggerland. It would appear that educatin’ (so to call it) too many of the Bad Poor above the appointed station in life at public expense is Blimp’s pet peeve, which again suggests that one is not viewing the Big Picture from Mt. Olympus so much as looking out through the shutters from the attic of a crank.
In any case, there is nothin’ in the Eightfold Way at the end that is obviously pertinent to the colonel’s preliminary bitchin’ and moanin’. (III) comes closest to pertinence, I suppose, but not very close. Who on G*re’s green earth hears the epither ‘Utopian’ flung around and thinks first of the tertiary education of the undeservin’?
Healthy days.
___
[1] Could it be that Castle Blimpenstein has been pestered by environmental whackos from down in the village of late? Sort of like Neocomrade Dr. R. Limbaugh and those turtle-lover bureaucrats?
One symptom that appears everywhere (US, UK, Greece and everywhere else) is that systems of all kinds have ballooned into an epic mess that has long lost it’s original purpose and only exists to feed itself.
Any attempt to fix this entangled web is futile, it really is easier to let it crash and burn, and then rebuild everything from scratch on top of the ashes.
Dr. Hanson,
What you aptly demonstrate as the problems and cures for a bloated bureacratic educational system in California can be said for bureaucracies at all levels of local, state, and federal government throughout the country. In the educational systems of some states there are more educational administrators than teachers. Why does a high school need two principals, three assistant principals, assistants for assistants and large staffs to facilitate all of them?
Professor Hanson -
As I suspect you remember, the French Summer “embarrassment” of seniors dying in the Summer of 2003 was due in large part to the fact that NEWLY LIBERATED IRAQIS were able for the first time to buy air-conditioners that summer and soaked up most of the excess supply. I do not know the exact number of French seniors that died that summer of heat stroke, did hear one estimate of approximately 10,000, a figure greater than our K.I.A., to date in Iraq. As I recall, the French Government of that time was vehemently against the Iraq War. In the 18th or 19th Centuries, such a juxtaposition might have been called “Divine Providence.” -S-
those colleges are turning more of these entitlement types out every year.
taxpayers should be relieved of the cost of higher education.
then the schools would have to explain their cost / value status to their client …the student.
as long as government is involved it will continue to grow in cost and deliver less ..as you state ..the Greek model.
I absolutely agree with you, Adina. Caltech is the only one worth the price. Unfortunately, my son didn’t like it for reasons unknown (probably having to do with the location), but will be happily attending the Colorado School of Mines on a scholarship. There’s a striking lack of propaganda there, too, as any tour through the bookstore will attest. Colorado also has its problems with funding schools, but they always have, and the fluff hasn’t grown there quite as heartily as it has in California.
My spouse and I are alums of Berkeley and UCSD, but I’m shocked at the state of undergraduate education there now. We wouldn’t touch it with a ten-foot pole- no amount of scholarship money would entice us to send our son there. He wouldn’t even graduate in four years, heaven knows what kind of useless (at best) liberal arts he’d be taking, and ultimately the cost would exceed that of Caltech.
“Monitor for tax purposes the many billions sent out of state to Latin America, tax-free, by California residents who are illegally residing in the state. Focus on the large incomes of a few Californians that are manipulated to be taxed at the capital gains rate rather than the income tax rate. Monitor the vast underground market of cash sales transactions that are not taxed at all, and the general noncompliance with state revenue laws of open air markets, roadside food vendors, and off the books day workers. ”
Yes, clearly the prescription for too much government is, well, more government. You know better than this. You know that anything involving “monitoring” means another government agency. Which invariably means more government growth. Especially when the monitoring involves ways to get more money into government coffers. Tax roadside food vendors? Dear lord, can’t a man even buy a taco in California without paying a tax?
That said, I have no issue with the rest of what you wrote. Each day some new, even greater government abuse of the taxpayer (and sanity) surfaces. Today in the Los Angeles Times this gem:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-overtime7-2010mar07,0,1578628.story
To summarize–the Governator tried to trim the budget by furloughing state employees. State employees figured out that they could still collect overtime. So they just worked a lot more. As a consequence, a state employed nurse who was supposed to go from 90K/year to 80K wound up collecting over $270,000 a year! And it turns out there are a number of state employees collecting over 100 grand in overtime PLUS their salary and benefits. It would take the taxes of 5 or 6 physicians (at least) to pay the salary of one government nurse. A society in debt can’t support that kind of salaried employee.
As for the disaster of the UC system, apparently over the last decade, as Dr. Hanson alluded to, growth of high level administrators has increased over 100%. These would be the folks in redundant positions taking home 6 figure salaries. A UCLA study suggests that these “excess” admins are costing the state nearly $800 million. So you could shave almost a billion off of the UC budget simply by making the administration less top heavy. I suppose you might increase the workload of those administrators, but for 6 figures you are SUPPOSED to work really hard.
As for the masses of protesting students, I fail to understand what it is they object to. No one is forcing them to go to a UC. California has a cheaper CSU and community college system. They can also save money by going to a community college for 2 years and transferring to a UC (worked out just fine for me). A number of my community college professors taught at both the local UC and the community college, so I wound up having essentially the same courses for a fraction of the cost. This option is still available for anyone in California. Beyond that, federally subsidized loans are still available for UC students. Yes, increased tuition means increased loan payments. However, since the vast majority of the protesting students, or at least the ones that manage to find employment, will go into the public sector (I would guess there is a correlation between protestors and future government employment), and since the government is more than happy to forgive loans for “public service,” again, I fail to see the problem. The taxpayer is going to wind up footing the bill while they work a cushy government union job and get loan repayment.
I suppose the good news in all of this is that it has to come crashing down in the next decade. Since the CBO is now projecting government debt on the order of $20 trillion (not including Medicare and Social Security, of course) by 2020, the game is over for all intents and purposes. This is the greatest amount of debt in human history, by far, simply is not sustainable, and all the tax increases in the world are not going to help when people refuse to give up their entitlements (yes, I’m looking at all you boomers, I have no obligation to pay for your retirement or health care). So sure, we can keep up the charade for a few more years, but this sort of insanity at the state and federal level is an impossibility long term.
It’s all academic. There simply is no more money. It doesn’t matter how much public employees deserve, or what government obligations exist. Talk to our owners, the Chinese. We’re broke and not creditworthy.
Too many attend college at ruinous cost and graduate with an inflated sense of self worth.
I’ve written this before, but it bears repeating. I will not hire a xxxxxx studies major. I wouldn’t have them if they’d work for free and have the IT expertise we are seeking.
You describe the situation in academia perfectly. I reached similar conclusions (from career experiences in both in CA and elsewhere), became disgusted with it and left (and also, truth be told, came to the realization that I really wasn’t interested in being “a research scholar”). The system is broken, bloated, and corrupt. Solving the problem should be easy, but given human self interest, ego, and hubris will defy correction. I have no potential solution to offer–while on the one hand reform should be simple, reality on the other is fraught with complications as unique as each institution. Ultimately “the system” will collapse and something will rise from the dust. Who knows, it might even be an improvement.
When FDR died, WW2 was still going on. I don’t recall Truman whining and moaning about his alter ego leaving him “a mess” to clean up. You know, those minor messy things like dropping atomic bombs on cities filled with children and other living things. No one forced Mr. Obama to run for office. There is no logging chain tied to his ass. He can quit any time.
The citizens of California are getting the results they voted for. They will shortly be pleading for a bailout from the federal government . As in getting more of other people’s money – the state’s ethic from top to bottom.
Dr. VDH suggstions are most appropriate toward salvaging a beautiful state and many wonderful people -. This is exactly why California legislators will not enact these logical and corrective steps. Pity. The greedy fools are electing those who are most happy to exploit.
Great article.
These Berkeley Brats are a bit hard to take, especially when so many Americans can’t even afford to send their kids to the local community college.
And in just a few years, these Berkeley bully boys and girls will be fresh fodder for the bureaucracies and institutions that run our American show. Scary.
@ XX. All: Check Six, South
Things can always get worse;
Implementation of the changes needed
to meet the threats from Mexico will
be resisted both by those who see the
Americas as many nations, one economic
zone, and by Mexicans, including US
citizens, who put loyalty to family
and (previous) homeland ahead of loyalty
to the US.
After the Loony Liberal Leftists recover
from their shock at the above statement,
they can brace themselves for the shock
of the totally predictable consequences
and countermeasures that will follow when
the Mexican government, already weakened
by its war with the Drug Lords, collapses
economically, and the desperate refugees
head north, by the millions.
A reality check for doubters:
Make your own estimate of the probability
of various levels of grief and US responses,
then try to defend them here.
@ 16. Adina Kutnicki,Israel: CT & MIT
College admission based on merit alone.
That turns out not to be the case.
My wife has been handling the College
application process for bright students
for thirty years, and she assures me that
there are none left which are not forced
to admit on other, PC criteria.
This is a more important point than one
might think, as the maximization of the
creation of new wealth by the brightest
is one half of the solution, the other
being political reform.
@ XX. All: Check Six, South
Things can always get worse;
Implementation of the changes needed
to meet the threats from Mexico will
be resisted both by those who see the
Americas as many nations, one economic
zone, and by Mexicans, including US
citizens, who put loyalty to family
and (previous) homeland ahead of loyalty
to the US.
After the Loony Liberal Leftists recover
from their shock at the above statement,
they can brace themselves for the shock
of the totally predictable consequences
and countermeasures that will follow when
the Mexican government, already weakened
by its war with the Drug Lords, collapses
economically, and the desperate refugees
head north, by the millions.
A reality check for doubters:
Make your own estimate of the probability
of various levels of grief and US responses,
then try to defend them here.
@ 16. Adina Kutnicki,Israel: CT & MIT
College admission based on merit alone.
That turns out not to be the case.
My wife has been handling the College
application process for bright students
for thirty years, and she assures me that
there are none left which are not forced
to admit on other, PC criteria.
This is a more important point than one
might think, as the maximization of the
creation of new wealth by the brightest
is one half of the solution, the other
being political reform.
#31 RightWingHippyChick: Spot on, I like your thinking. Sometimes it’s better to tear down the house rather than paint, patch, repair, rewire, replumb, redo & remodel at greater expense.
I say bulldoze this mess, starting with Congress in November (i.e. vote against ALL incumbents – throw all the bums out), and begin anew.
I’m mad as h*** and not going to take it anymore.
Please, VDH, DO NOT recommend to the hyper-regulated state populace of California the unleashing of even more regulators, bureaucrats, and tax collectors to police fees, liens, cash sales, open air markets and capital gains.
For God’s sake, man, cut the top taxes on the most productive of the state’s citizens ASAP. And if the middle class population as a whole won’t shoulder their own burdens in straight up taxation, whining about the rich the whole way to insolvency and decay, then let them leave and let the state default. The problem with california is they have choked the golden goose to death–and the producers are fleeing or going John Galt on them. The socialist mindset of the typical Californian HAD TO lead where you are now. And like all whining progressives, they hate the producers even as they leave.
How much diminution of state educational institutions would be needed to make graduates more ignorant than they now are?
“No, nothing is much said about the gargantuan number of UC administrators, their pay, the percentage of administrative costs in the budget, the number of non-academic employees serving in the system….”
With all due respect Dr. Hanson, are you going to take out your own trash? I had the displeasure of watching a PhD tongue lash a janitor last week because her trash can doesn’t get emptied every day. At least her’s gets emptied. I have to empty my own trash–takes less than 5 mins to walk out back and dump it in the bin. It’s also good exercise.
When cuts come, the first to go are the administrative staff: janitors, electricians, accounting clerks, administrative assistants.
However, the Professors still get to take visitors and guests to Chez Panise for dinner and get reimbursed for it. God forbid that a visiting professor or entrepreneur has to rent a car or take public transit. No, they must be provided with limousines. Professors won’t order their own airline tickets or approve their own invoices. They’re much too busy and too important. Professors complain constantly about their shabby offices and labs. While multiple postdocs and staff are crammed into cubicles or small offices like sardines. Even the Professors with newly remodeled offices and labs push the university to provide them with new buildings.
I keep hearing about public employees who make more than those in the private sector. I don’t know many. The only major advantage I have is that I get more paid holidays and a larger selection of health plans. My friends in the private sector all make more money than I do. I have no job security. I know damn well that when the next round of budget cuts come, my head will be on the chopping block not the head of some Marxist professor who thinks expects to be treated like Donald Trump or… the President of the United States.
As if California doesn`t have enough problems, Jerry Brown is running for Governor again. Heaven help the state if he gets elected for he has a hammer in one hand and the final nail in the other….
@ 30. JHM dba ‘Blimposceptic’
Wow.
That’s all I’ve got. And with a good appreciation for that sledge hammer you offer as thoughtful commentary I imagine you’ll take my “Wow” and try to establish several puncture wounds in and about my evil conservative Hanson-enjoying brain.
Sorry. That’s no rapier wit you’re wielding there, bud, but hope it makes you feel better.
Now have at me.
Wow.
BREAKING
OFF TOPIC
By ASHRAF KHAN, Associated Press Writer Ashraf Khan, Associated Press Writer – 15 mins ago
KARACHI, Pakistan – The American-born spokesman for al-Qaida has been arrested by Pakistani intelligence officers in the southern city of Karachi, two officers and a government official said Sunday, the same day Adam Gadahn appeared in a video calling for Muslim violence.
VDH:
Perfect as can be description of the state of the State, one that can only come from experienced eyes, ears and hands on in the systems of the State of California.
Now we get to see the truth in action; how it divides between joint, marrow, mother, father, sister and brother. This exposure to the truth is devastating to the status quo. There are choices to be made by those who draw from the public trough; rebel or realize and the consequences of the choice. To rebel you must take to the streets and threaten or do violence, you could choose not to show up at work only for your employer to realize that they can get along without you.
To realize you must accept that you have believed in an omniscient state instead of an Omniscient God. You have believed that money grows on trees and most importantly you have believed that you are not a parasite, a drain on the health of the overall economic system. Accept that you have it backwards.
State employee; be angry but be angry at yourself first, then be angry at those who created this system for political power, they used you, they sucked you in.
You should have thought: how is this paid for?
Let the truth educate us all, wealth is created by those who produce goods of value; food, clothing, energy, then those who have accumulated wealth buy services that make them, the wealth producers, more efficient so they can produce more wealth, services like; transportation, communication, education, medicine, money management, and recreational equipment these are called service industries for a reason; they are services to and for the real wealth producers.
Somehow this idea and the truth of it have been turned upside down and backwards in these last few generations, mostly to support greed and corruption in business and government. Have we all forgotten what is of true value? Do we really want to relearn that lesson the hard way? To promote peace why don’t we just educate ourselves about the creation of wealth and value and the importance of truth and justice?
So now the service industries have become greater than the wealth producers? Backwards, right?
Just imagine in your mind, which comes first, the cart or the horse?
If we lose the wealth creators then we have no wealth. If those in the service industries were really smart they would encourage the wealth creators to do more and more not less and less.
Thank you Mr. Hanson, you are the best of the best.
California should honor it’s most prominent citizen.
The rest of you; hand to the plow.
“…first cuts should be vice chancellors, associate provosts, assistants to the president, and other top echelon administrators….”
Here’s a novel proposal: find out what they do before you criticize them. You might be surprised how essential and difficult their jobs are.
49. Catherine – re 30′s ‘critique’. Well said. Allow me to attempt a translation (insofar as it’s possible to translate gibbersih…)
30′s critique boils down to:
I. A meaningless whine over the order in which VDH lists his points. (I he wanted to make his strongest argument first?)
II. A lame attempt to spin the ‘depopulation’ comment by implying that Conseratives really want lower birth rates among the poor, rather than seeking conditions that enable the poor to improve their situation (i.e. sound public education and a strong private sector.)
III. An unfounded attempt to reduce VDH’s observation that the over-emphasis on (often fraudulent) environmentalism has serious economic downsides which must be taken into account, with personal economic grievance. (There may be a connection, I don’t know. Hoepfully we all learn from personal experience. That does not refute VDH’s solid point however, it merely obscures it.)
IV. A cynical attempt to deflect VDH’s observation about the pseudo-religious nature of progressive dogma (not to mention the ongoing attempts to deify Obama) with snide insinuations regarding VDH’s own personal spiritual views. (Funny, I thought the Left WANTED to keep religious discourse out of politics.)
V. A sarcastic attempt to discredit VDH’s assertion that over-idealistic pacifism in the face of mounting threats is the logical (and obvious) outcome of leftist utopianism (see Obama’s pre-emptive world apology tour) – of which California is emblematic.
VI. A repeat misrepresentation regarding education and the poor. (Conservatives believe in real education, not in indoctrinating the underclass with an anti-American entitlement ethos.)
In other words 30′s post is completely meaningless, and marveling at that (wow!) is indeed the appropriate response, for it takes a lot of practice to cram so much emptiness into such a large space. All in all this is about the best that leftwing propagandists are capable of. Deliberately obscure rants cloaked in a veneer of pseudo-erudition, laden with misrepresentation and ad-hominem and very thin on real argumentation. It tells you all you really need to know about them.
Also, the pacifism comment was well warranted, as California is home to people who do not believe the military ought to be allowed to recruit in their cities. If not for monetary reasons, then leftists push pacifism for utopian reasons, believing if we all just laid down our weapons, we’d be at peace. They never think that even Jesus needs to use the Rod in order to maintain peace. The need for swords does not disappear merely by beating them into plowshares; rather, swords are beaten into plowshares when swords are no longer needed because no one has both the desire and the courage to attack another.
University culture,is a lot of crap. locked up in political correctness,LIBERALISM, black studies, urban studies, student trips to European States such as Spain and Greece. Students majoring in History, or Arts or Culture and Society or Undeclared (lost). The universities throughout America have become waste of time institutions for a lot of students. Takes too long, no reason for getting a college degree to take 4 years. Too expensive and wasted time.
Many gradute without any “Skills” for getting a job and retaining a job.
Have always appreciated Military experience and Technical School, Never looked back , thinking to have missed anything important by not attending any of the major universities. If needed to learn a specific subject, focus . Nothing is impossible.
Well, we can do what the Greeks do, and have done, countless times since the inception of modern Greece: default. It’ll keep the lawyers and courts too busy to bother with poaching new employment horizons in warfare by extending the court’s jurisdiction into matters of politics and war. Unlike the political elites, the EU rank and file certainly isn’t in any hurry to bail out Greece, or Spain or Portugal. Iceland’s unwashed just refused to bail out the bankers that got them in their mess–that is, voted for default. But the Icelanders do have fishing to fall back on, unlike Americans who no longer have family farms to escape to. But California voters were still not willing to bail out the politicians last year either.
Let the kids run amok. Let them ‘occupy’ the university buildings. Let them rant chant, demonstate, and act out. Let them shut the universities down. Wait them out. The only thing that will suffer is their educaional goals. The authorities should do nothing. Just sit tight. Let the students know that the only thing that will accomplish is their chances of ever earning a degree. Let them suck on that for a while. Just be patient. Reality is the best teacher of all.
Haiti, 7.6. Chile, 8.8. Taiwan, 6. something. San Andreas……we’re counting on you to solve a myriad of pesky problems. Memo to the students of Cali: We are not impressed. Feeling agrieved? Not appreciated? TS. Get a job. Go pick some lettuce. The rest of us have our own problems, kiddies. And we’re not much impressed by a bunch of snot-nosed, pampered infants demanding more time on the teat. Times are tough asswipes. get real or get lost. PS: esteemed faculty….tomorrow you may actually be required to do something useful. Get a grip.
Dynamics:
Pension and muni funds and bonds are in deeply the red. Spending is at unsustainable levels. City, county and state revenues (taxes) are down – 30% – 40% and more in some places – because people are out of work and homes and business properties are empty. Government bureaucracies are implacable in defending the turf they’ve carved out of our lives. They don’t want to see the laws changed (let alone lower taxes) in order to make all of our lives simpler and less expensive.
The largest demographic in America – thus, the biggest earners and spenders – is retiring.
Teachers, like the parents of the students they teach, are deeply in dept and cannot ‘afford’ cuts in their benefits or even a reorganized pay structure. If that happens, they’ll be ruined. If it doesn’t happen, the parents of the children they teach will be ruined. Parents, teachers, school boards, town councils and all, have lived beyond their means for decades. They’ve all lived on easy credit and own virtually nothing they ‘possess.’ The economy is putting the squeeze on everyone…and no one wants to give anything up. No one wants to sacrifice anything. …we all want other people to sacrifice so that we can keep our own lifestyles intact.
For the moment, the argument is really about who gets screwed first. Parents? Teachers? School boards? City councils? County commissions? City, county and state government employees? Union members? Non-union members? Veterans? Welfare Moms? Social Security recipients? Cops? Firefighters? Road crews? The problem is, in the end, everyone gets screwed. Few people see that, let alone understand it. Most of the rest see it but refuse to admit it.
We’ve seen riots and protests at Berkley and other colleges and universities over similar issues.
Protests and demonstrations aside from TEA Partiers, are now happening in cities and towns across the nation over similar issues and dynamics.
We’re on a path to self-immolation.
Aesop:
The Apes and the Two Travelers
TWO MEN, one who always spoke the truth and the other who told nothing but lies, were traveling together and by chance came to the land of Apes. One of the Apes, who had raised himself to be king, commanded them to be seized and brought before him, that he might know what was said of him among men. He ordered at the same time that all the Apes be arranged in a long row on his right hand and on his left, and that a throne be placed for him, as was the custom among men. After these preparations he signified that the two men should be brought before him, and greeted them with this salutation: What sort of a king do I seem to you to be, O strangers?’ The Lying Traveler replied, You seem to me a most mighty king. And what is your estimate of those you see around me?’ These, he made answer, are worthy companions of yourself, fit at least to be ambassadors and leaders of armies. The Ape and all his court, gratified with the lie, commanded that a handsome present be given to the flatterer. On this the truthful Traveler thought to himself, If so great a reward be given for a lie, with what gift may not I be rewarded, if, according to my custom, I tell the truth?’ The Ape quickly turned to him. And pray how do I and these my friends around me seem to you?’ Thou art, he said, a most excellent Ape, and all these thy companions after thy example are excellent Apes too. The King of the Apes, enraged at hearing these truths, gave him over to the teeth and claws of his companions.
—
Welcome to Socialism
The problem with defaulting is that it can only be done once. After you default, you no longer have to worry about servicing the debt, but no one will lend you money going forward, so you must balance the budget and build a surplus.
And, the question is, can the Conservative movement sweeping the country stay the course?
We have every reason to.
Dr Hanson,
I read somewhere a guess that they typical large American university has more administrators than British India. Could you verify that?
Regards,
Bill Drissel
I have to say that I am surprised our soon to be ex-Governor over in New York – a Democrat no less – has had a better handle on State spending than the Governator.
On the Public versus Private differential, exists on paper, but one might want to reality check the numbers. Some jobs do pay more, but on the whole it seems to reflect the fact that there are a lot of low paying Private sector jobs out there. The Cato Institute stands by their analysis, but it certainly doesn’t correspond with anything I’ve ever seen.
“When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic”
“Monitor for tax purposes the many billions sent out of state to Latin America, tax-free, by California residents who are illegally residing in the state.”
Better yet, kick every last one of them out of the U.S., and just watch how state and federal budgets balance themselves. Well, at least they’ll be much closer to balanced.
48. whyyeseyecsays:
“As if California doesn`t have enough problems, Jerry Brown is running for Governor again. Heaven help the state if he gets elected for he has a hammer in one hand and the final nail in the other….”
…or perhaps a hammer in one hand and a sickle in the other.
The problem is the greed of the business class. A small coterie of billionaires control all of the private sector wealth leaving employees in the private sector with nothing but crumbs. This is not only true in California but in all of America. If what Mr. Hanson says is true, then state employment in California is a fair and just model that should be applied to all jobs everywhere. If California just seized the assets of its top 1% they could provide health care, college education, and a job like Hanson describes government employees already have. This would become a model for the nation. However, this will never happen because society is organized in the interests of the billionaires who have rigged the political process so their interests are always served.
Very recently, Argentines woke up one morning, and discovered their banks were closed, they could nit withdraw money from ATMs, and it was unclear when they would be open. There was mass panic.
Eventually, banks began to open again, for a few hours a day. Those who were able to access their accounts learned that if they had $1000 (equivalent) in the bank before the closures, their accounts now showed a $500 balance, except they hadn’t withdrawn any money.
Greece – right before the world’s eyes, Iceland, Japan – since 1991 and still no better off, and all of Eastern Europe pre ’80s experienced national insolvency. Japan’s stock market peaked around 30,000 and the Nikkei index has barely touched half that level since.
One would think there might be lessons in all of these examples that resulted in devastation for families and individuals of these countries, whether it’s California or the country facing these questions of solvency.
The will of the people is the only thing that can stop what otherwise is a generations downgrade. And that is anything but a surefire answer.
At this point there is only one solution. Prayer. Pray for oneself to choose to believe to live within their means, to balance the books at home, to be willing to work for real, and choose leaders who posess these same beliefs. That most people reflect in this manner, and course correct to this kind of path, then maybe a long term problem will be minimized.
“Agnosticism and atheism become more popular as government assumes the role of deity and brags on its heaven on earth powers (what evil God would dare allow inequality on earth?). The government check is far better than the Sunday service.”
A society dominated by agnosticism and atheism cannot survive. Those individuals rejecting mainstream Judeo-Christian vales will usually tend to embrace utopian schemes. They are comparable to termites destroying the very foundations of the building. G.K. Chesterton was right: those who reject religion will more often than not find a absurd substitute.
Excellent, insightful article by Professor Hanson as usual. I have one question — and I am sure it is not Professor Hanson’s fault — why is the article being introduced with a picture of the cover of Professor Thomas Sowell’s book with his name blotted out and no reference to it? Some overeager designer perhaps? By the way another outstanding analyis by Professor Hanson’s colleague. Both of whom are among the most brilliant minds in America today.
Home Run, professor! Wow, what a shot, and deservedly so against the least self-critical institution in our sorry nation; the university is the biggest scam going, bigger than CDS or off-balance-sheet accounting, or the California housing bubble. Bring me a thousand hard-nosed accountants, a thousand shovels, and maybe the Augean stables of the UC system could get cleaned out in a decade. God, what an inflated mess of sprawling government waste and excess.
That’s the point: who’s working for whom?
I’ve always thought that because of the job security and great pension plans, government workers should get about 20% less than those that work in the private sector.
It will never happen until there is a complete meltdown.
I think California would be best served by Dr. Hansen running for Governor… even if my essay addiction would suffer for it.
64. True, it would probably be better to give those statistics controlled for education level. Jobs that require a high school diploma with no trade certification are not going to pay as much as those requiring a trade certification or college degree.
Or students believe: (e) I’ll convince them to keep this gravy train running a few more years – so I can get me degree and a good job in Texas and leave this mess for somebody else to clean up.
Some of the comments here imply one of the most important points of all, which is that California’s great problem is that the state has become the employer of first — or at most second — resort, for too many walks of life.
A state has a serious problem when it is employing lots of nurses. And this is one of California’s greatest fiscal weaknesses: bringing too much that is naturally cost-controlled when it’s in the private sector into the public sector, where you can sell your vote to the politicians (through your union) in return for employment security and big pensions, at the expense of the public.
Not picking on nurses here. How about traffic planners? Why in the name of all that’s holy does the State of California need to employ “professionals” to plan for the taxpayers to do with fewer roads and ride our bikes more? Water resource planners, who perform a similar function — why do we need them?
I did a study of the Governator’s proposed 2009-10 budget last spring, and discovered that one of the resource planning boards had its budget cut for the budget years in question, but planned to add a professional (not administrative) employee in the 2-year budget, and pay everyone more. Pay them to do what, exactly, with a smaller budget sustaining more people? Send each other emails?
Additional insight into this problem can be gained from the fact that a year ago, the fastest-growing and least-controllable element of the California budget was the state HHS budget for addressing developmental disabilities; e.g., mental retardation, autism, etc.
What was California doing to address these issues? Was it providing a state stipend for families with disabled kids? Had it even tried to scope out the breadth of that problem across the population beforehand?
No to the first, and not apparently, to the second. The state was BUILDING CLINICS, CENTERS, and FACILITIES, and EMPLOYING PROFESSIONALS. It was BUYING LAND, PAYING CONTRACTORS, and HIRING PEOPLE ON THE PUBLIC PAYROLL. Then disabled kids started lining up at the door, and shock, shock: HHS needed MORE MONEY to deal with the putative objects of the program’s solicitude.
This has become the state’s answer to everything: create new agencies, bureaucracies, and employment and contracting opportunities. How much could the state save, and yet actually help families with developmentally disabled kids, if it just provided a stipend that would help cover the expenses of therapy and tutoring offered in the private sector? Administering such a stipend — probably through office facilities that already exist in every county — would cost far less than building new facilities and hiring a bunch of skilled professionals at taxpayer expense.
We’ve already been seeing the effects of this on state services. Things the state SHOULD be paying for — keeping felons locked up, repaving roads and laying new ones, firefighting, law enforcement, teachers in the K-12 classrooms — experience budget cuts and are annually threatened with more. These services that the actual taxpayers actually use and rely on — these are the services that are under threat. Along with classroom instruction in the university system, of course, because college educations for the children of California taxpayers aren’t what the system is really there for.
Of course, uncontrollable entitlements are the other major budget issue. The thing about entitlements is that you CAN’T control their impact on the budget. Even the sum total of the bloated pensions of non-law-enforcement/firefighter state retirees (sorry, you can’t convince me law-enforcement/firefighter-retiree pensions are bloated) pales in comparison to what we hemorrhage on welfare entitlements. A federal judge has ruled that we can’t award the entitlements only to our legal-citizen selves, but even if we could, we couldn’t pay for everything the politicians promise. If you’re interested in an eye-opening look into how some California citizens live on entitlements, see here:
http://theoptimisticconservative.wordpress.com/features/
(This page also has a link to the budget survey from last year that I mentioned above.)
Will Steve Poizner or Meg Whitman be able to do anything about these dysfunctional trends in state government? I doubt it.
Fortunately, we can take heart that agnosticism and atheism won’t become the pervasive problem VDH suggests, even in California. Periclean Athens didn’t survive in its state at zenith, nor did Rome, nor Holy Rome, nor any subsequent combination or concert of European nations. But Christianity did. I predict not creeping agnosticism in the coming years, but a resurgence of faith, in California and across the USA.
Reality: U.S. public organizations, from the federal to the state governments and universities, are broke. Expenses exceed income. The more they borrow, the worse the deficit becomes. Feds will print money, but the resulting inflation destroys the economy and collapses the dollar’s purchasing power overseas. Feds will raise income taxes, but the higher rates will bring in less revenue because fewer people are employed. Mass poverty and oppression. None of it necessary, and all of it engineered by our regressive “liberal” elites, who think they can get away with this because it won’t affect them.
Let’s make sure that it does.
Whenever it comes, the restart will require getting down to the basics. I mean really basic. A good starting point is recognizing the truth that all taxation is theft. Otherwise it’d be called a gift or voluntary contribution. AFAIK, theft is performed by thieves.
The amount of the theft is irrelevant – it’s all just criminal. If a robber takes your wallet at gunpoint, but let’s you keep $10, does that change the nature of the act?
Ponder this: How can taxpayer refusal to pay be considered either illegal or immoral? Without individual property rights, there can be no other rights.
To permit the thieves to borrow inifinite amounts of funnier-by-the-day money, based on expectations that they’ll be able to steal more than enough going forward to make the payments plus the vig, is absolute lunacy. I don’t recognize the motivations of the thief as important to discussions about my property.
Dr. Hanson’s prescriptions, all good as always, merely lessen the amount of the theft without altering the faulty premises that facilitate and underwrite this political/bureaucratic statism that’s increasingly worthy of RICO-statute prosecution. And, it’s all happening during wartime?
Vote every incumbent out of office and into the “dock.” Some will be found innocent, but most complicit. Think about such trials as “protecting” them from tar and stuff.
thoughts….
…an Art Director’s position was available at UC Presidents’s Office (headquarters for the 10 UC’s)) for $139,000….huh? And that is low for that place. 100′s there make over $200, 000.
…All rabble-rouser programs i,e, “Everybody but White” Studies, need to be eliminated or severly cut. These programs are partially designed to handle some minorities that need a softer curriculum to graduate from a school that they were not qualified for. They lead to non-profit jobs aimed at bitching about America
…California is done for all the reasons Hanson sites. It will end up something like Brazil at best.
…California, unlike much of the rest of the county was build on GREED. It also was a fairly non-Protestant place, so it really didn’t follow the standard pattern in America (think of all the failed catholic colonies south of the border).
…The golden era taught California’s arrogant white middle class that religeon wasn’t needed. Even Hanson has got “too smart” for religeon, I suspect. Seems like in other places the intellectuals and rich stayed religeous.
…Californian whites are the most cocky, arrogant people in America, conservative and liberal. Always have been. Destroyed a great place because they love themselves more than their children. Travel anywhere and you can pick out the Californian, easy–they are loud mouth spoiled children.
…Dr. Hanson, thanks for reminding me to move out of the “the state formerly known as golden”.
tax tax tax, spend spend spend, elect elect elect. The most progressive state in the nation is showing the results of that liberal credo. Let’s hope it’s a lesson we learn. When all functions of governance are contorted to fit the prime directive of getting elected this is what happens.
I have a story to share that sheds light on the typical university employee’s attitude:
At a recent choir practice at our evangelical church, we were sharing our prayer concerns and praises. One gentleman shared with elation that a program in his department had received some grant or whatnot for some research. He was delighted that the grant covered all the costs of the program. And–this is the clencher- he exclaimed, “And, it was all free!”
My friend, the financial advisor, leaned into him and sort of whispered, “Someone paid for it, nothing’s ever free.”
#62 Prudent: “can the conservative movement sweeping the country stay the course?” What course? The so-called conservatives are lined up at the same government hog trough like all the liberals; they’re just at a different end of the trough.
Check the GAO studies from last year showing a collective near $270 billion in cost overruns in Pentagon weapons procurement programs. The studies were done prior to Obama taking office; so it’s all on Bush/Cheney’s watch.
I haven’t heard any of the self-proclaimed Tea Partiers going after that kind of waste. For the Tea Partiers, it’s “get Obama 24/7.”
Another example can be found in the list of Republican congressionals vehemently opposed to the Obama stimulus bill. Then they line up back in district taking credit for bringing home the gravy. They got called out, and rightfully so, on a recent Sunday morning press show for their hypocrisy by Governor Schwarznegger.
Back on topic, I would agree in general with Dr. Hanson that there is plenty of fluff in educational systems that can be cut out.
There is an interesting parallel between public universities and health care. The rising cost of both exceed the rate of inflation. One is government funded; the other is not, yet. The medical industry is taken to task for increasing costs. The educational industry gets a pass on costs, but there are howls when costs are passed on to consumers (students). How will a government run medical system be different from government run education?
Another amazing sermon. The Cotton Mather of our times.
“Instead the modus operandi is to cite students turned away, classes canceled, programs slashed — never any sense that the first cuts should be vice chancellors, associate provosts, assistants to the president, and other top echelon administrators — absences in many cases that would not affect the quality of instruction. Slash UC administrators by 50%, make all UC professors teach 2 classes per semester (those at CSU teach 4), cut out “support” personnel in various centers, end tenure — and at least some of the crisis would ease.”
Standard political ploy. Firing administrators is politically uncontroversial. You can actually do it. Turning away students and canceling classes is politically controversial. There’s a real question whether you can pay the necessary political price.
So when the legislature or the governor comes along and says, “You must find ways to make cuts,” you propose the politically impossible cuts, knowing the politicians will respond by trying to find a way to avoid making the cuts. Seems to work every time.
Enough people are in agreement with the solutions to the problem that we need not worry about that end of it.
Those of us who understand, and have the courage, must take the actions necessary to redeem our state and our country.
We can do it because we must do it.
@ 30. JHM dba ‘Blimposceptic’
That’s what you call a “three tissue post.” Because it took the little fancy-pants three tissues to clean up the mess he made while kvelling over his own supposed gleaming wit. Still, woeful ignorance wrapped in deliberately dense text is still, well, woeful ignorance.
Guy probably gets A’s on all his po-mo term papers though.
cfbleachers.
regardless of the the subject your words are like musical lyrics. Oh, and I don’t agree with you.
It is politically correct garbage. Californians are getting bad value for their money and in case it hadn’t occurred to you, contracts can (and I’m suggesting should) change. Legal obligations to research can well be changed to obligations to teach. If you and your fellows really feel the need to research do it on your own time or go somewhere else.
You know, I thought Apostle of Love was a moho, but it turns out that he’s a communist. Eh, same difference, they’re both subversive scum who are trying to conquer the world and subject us to their abominable regime.