Arnold and California

Seems like everyone is writing about the recall in California. It makes for an exciting story but the aftermath won't likely be nearly as exciting. You already hear the Democrats complaining about lack of polling places (apparently it was too much to have to fill out a ballot and mail it in for these people).

But here's some sobering realities: California is a mess. Why any business would locate itself in California is beyond me. If any state should have been chopped up into several states it's California. Its near monopoly of the west coast, particularly of the nicest parts, has allowed it to be much less competitive economically than other states and get away with it. Until now.

Businesses have been evacuating California en masse. High taxes. High regulation. A culture hostile towards business. High cost of livings. You'd think we were talking about France. Thankfully, there's no language barrier and people have been able to flee to other nearby states that are more on the ball than California.

So what is Arnold going to do? The state legislature is dominated by Democrats. How is he going to clean up the mess? Is he willing to cut regulation? Is he willing to chop benefits? Those will be tough things for the people of California to swallow. If the Terminator can't fix it, then we may indeed be getting a sneak preview of what our friends in Europe are in store for as their economies slowly grind to a halt due to massive taxation and social entitlements.

California at a glance:

San Francisco and the rest of the bay area obviously preferred to "stay the course" which I find amazing given that the high cost of doing business affects tech companies very acutely.