The Californian Dystopia
Vocabulary
| hope | beacon | prosperity |
| fail | dream (2) | grow up (2) |
| series | attribute | nightmare (2) |
| factor | take a look | accumulate |
| bill (2) | cover (2) | considered |
| gap | equal (2) | wealthy/wealthier/weathiest |
| rate | drought | affordable |
| lack | green card | homelessness |
| skid | base (2) | bad/worse/worst |
| rely | bubble (2) | contribute |
| price | skyrocket | lead/led/led |
| exodus | massive | exacerbate |
| income | boom (2) | hard/harder/hardest |
| lifestyle | reputation | find/found/found |
| cost | real estate | destination |
| rocket | skyrocket | entertainment |
| pricey | populous | make it big |
| demand | accessible | drive/drove/driven (3) |
| strict | regulation | address (3) |
| limit | ridiculous | meet/met/met (2) |
| attract | premium | headquarters |
| thrive | resource | pay/paid/paid |
| income | catch up | concentration |
| row (2) | longtime | rise/rose/risen |
| county | restriction | with money to burn |
| status | governor | in addition |
| benefit | contribute | legislature |
| plague | beholden | opposition |
| rumor | represent | corruption |
| push | check (2) | balance (2) |
| group | residents | special interests group |
| dumb | bow down | turn a blind eye |
| bid | downside | undocumented |
| ultra | sales tax | pay a premium |
| avoid | supply (2) | prosperous |
| strain | tension | current (2) |
| poverty | show up | at the expense of |
| border | struggle | take action |
| average | available | conclusion |
| wildfire | contribute | combination |
Video
Transcript
Ah California. Once a beacon of hope and prosperity has more recently been referred to as a “failed state”.
How did this happen? How did the state I grew up in go from a dream to a nightmare?
This is a complex question that can’t be attributed to a single cause, but really a series of factors that have accumulated over time.
Today we’re going to take a look and find out why people are now referring to California as a failed state let’s take a look.
Economic Factors
We might as well start with the money, or economic factors. One of the reasons California is considered a failed state is the economy. California has long been one of the wealthiest states in the U.S. with the GDP of 3.5 trillion dollars in 2023.
Now that’s good: California Covers the bills for a lot of other states.
Here’s the problem. The state’s economy is also one of the most unequal with a large wealth gap between the rich and the poor. This has led to a lack of affordable housing, rising homelessness and an increase in poverty rates.
California currently has two of the worst homeless neighborhoods in the U.S. the tenderloin in San Francisco and Skid Row in Los Angeles. And before anyone does yes it’s not just affordable housing that puts people on the streets there are many factors that go into it but this contributes to the problem.
California’s economy is heavily reliant on the tech industry, which has created a bubble that has led to skyrocketing housing prices, making it increasingly difficult for people to afford and live in California. The Golden State it should be expensive; not that expensive.
This has resulted in a massive exodus of middle-class families from California to other states. This of course has further exasperated the wealth gap and made it even harder for low-income families to find affordable housing.
It’s not just the tech boom California with its beautiful weather, entertainment industry and reputation has long been a popular destination for people looking to buy real estate or make it big in entertainment. Or sometimes they just wanted to live the lifestyle.
That was the old days. Over the past few decades, the cost of living in California has skyrocketed making it one of the most expensive states to live in.
Now there’s a lot of different factors that go into California real estate and how it got so expensive. One of the main reasons it got so pricey is the population growth the state has a population of over 39 million residents, making it the most populous state in the U.S.
This has led to a higher demand for housing which has driven up prices. In addition California strict zoning laws and environmental regulations have limited the amount of of available land for development, making it even harder to meet the demand for housing.
Like we’d said earlier California’s real estate has become so expensive because of its thriving Tech Industries; companies like Apple, Google and Facebook have their headquarters in California, attracting thousands of highly skilled workers that are willing to pay a premium for housing.
This has led to a concentration of wealth in certain parts of California like Silicon Valley and San Francisco. This of course will drive up the prices in the case of Silicon Valley especially it’s ridiculous how fast these prices rose and stayed there.
San Francisco which is just North of Silicon Valley is perhaps the most expensive city in California with an average home price of over 1.4 million dollars. The tech workers had money to burn and the longtime residents didn’t.
One of the other problems, San Francisco has strict rent control laws and this is limited the amount of available rental units, making it even harder for low-income residents to find affordable housing.
Basically San Francisco said you can’t charge too much and they put all these restrictions in there that just made developers stop making Apartments now San Francisco isn’t the only expensive place in California.
You also have Los Angeles with the average home price of being over $850,000; that’s the average. Los Angeles is the second largest city in the U.S. and it still has a thriving entertainment industry, which has attracted many people to the area, in addition to the city’s mild weather and beautiful beaches it makes it a popular place for tourists along with that.
This has led to people buying homes to rent them out as Airbnb’s driving up prices even higher.
You finally work your way down the coast and you have San Diego with the average home price being over eight hundred thousand dollars. San Diego is home to a lot of military bases and has a thriving biotech industry which has attracted highly skilled workers to the area.
While there’s no easy solution to this problem it’s clear that California needs to find a way to increase the supply of affordable housing in order to make the state more accessible to all the residents.
Political Factors
Another contributing factor to California’s failed state status is its political system. California is a one-party state with Democrats controlling both the governor’s office and the state legislature. This has led to a lack of balance in the political system with policies being pushed through without any real opposition.
This is never good; that’s why a lot of the southern states have been poor for so long — you need a balance. That’s just with everything in life, not just politics.
If one party goes unchecked, bad things happen. Well California’s been unchecked for quite some time. California’s political system has been plagued by rumors of corruption; and you know rumors when it comes to politics are a lot like smoke and fire where there’s smoke there’s fire.
Many people say they’re beholden to special interest groups rather than the needs of the people they represent. This has led to policies that benefit the wealthy and the powerful all at the expense of the poor in the working class.
Now I don’t know about the corruption thing these are just rumors these are stories. Who knows?
It’s politics. I’m sure there’s a good amount of it going. But is that the main problem? I just think they’ve made some really dumb policies — bowing down to environmental groups, doing the bidding for the ultra wealthy and turning a blind eye to obvious change that needs to happen.
Now that’s coming for me, and I’m a bit of an environmentalist; it’s like they’re in the middle of a massive over correction kind of like in a car you turn to avoid a problem in this case it’s environmental issues but they turn too hard which created even more problems.
Social Factors
Finally California’s social issues have also played a role in the decline. The state has a large population of undocumented immigrants. Now this is another thing that’s a double-edged sword: a lot of those undocumented workers are doing jobs in California a lot of Californians don’t want to do.
So in a way they are helping the economy. The downside is since they’re undocumented they’re not paying taxes unless they buy something and pay the sales tax. In a lot of cases their kids are going to school and they’re really not paying into it go to the county hospital and aren’t paying taxes towards that.
They’re putting a strain on resources and this has led to an increased tension between different communities.
I don’t hold anything against someone wanting to come to another country to get a better life to seek asylum: that’s what this country is all about. I wouldn’t be here right now if my great-grandparents hadn’t done that.
But I think the different communities and the different people in California that have a problem with the undocumented immigrants is the fact that they’re not doing it the right way. And I also understand that that’s not always an option for someone that shows up at the southern border.
A lot of really bad things going on in Central America, and if I was there I’d probably head north too. But I think most people that do have a problem with this would just rather the people do it the right way.
If they can get their green card, do whatever, pay their taxes just like residents and documented workers do now.
On top of that, California has struggled with issues such as rising crime rates, drug addiction and mental health issues, all of which have contributed to the state’s decline.
The state has also struggled with environmental issues such as droughts and wildfires which also puts a strain on its resources. Billions of dollars get thrown into drought and wildfire stuff every single year . . . and honestly it just doesn’t seem like the technology is catching up with the problem.
Normally when you have a problem in a society, technology will catch up or technology will get to the point where dealing with. It doesn’t cost as much when it comes to the droughts on the wildfire in California. It almost seems like they’re doing the same stuff they did when I was a teenager in the 80s.
Conclusion
I’d like to give you the conclusion and I’d like to give you an awkward pause so here we go.
California has become a failed state due to a combination of economic, political and social factors.
There’s obviously no easy solution to these problems but one thing is clear action must be taken to address the problems so California can regain its status as a prosperous and thriving state for everyone in the state, not just the billionaires.
All right that’s today’s video hope you guys enjoyed it hope you got some information of it now go out have a great day and be nice to each other.
Questions
Los Angeles, California. California has and will always be a land of opportunity and success, adventure and excitement. Is this completely true, mostly true, in the middle, yes and no, largely false or entirely false?
New York City, New York. In terms of GDP, is California a rich or poor state? What are some of its industries?
Chicago, Illinois. Everyone in California is rich, in the upper-class or middle-class. Is this right or wrong?
Houston, Texas. Are housing, rent and the cost of living cheap, medium-priced or expensive? Why is housing so expensive?
Miami, Florida. Why do many people move to California? Do people only move to California and stay there?
Boston, Massachusetts. People buy homes to live in them only. Is this correct or incorrect?
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Because California is part of the United Stats, it is a full democracy. Does the narrator agree?
Cleveland, Cincinnati, Ohio. Is everyone in California an American-born citizen? Is the presenter xenophobic?
Detroit, Michigan. What are some other problems that California has?
Seattle, Washington. In your nation, what do people think of California? What do people associate with California? Where do they get these ideas from?
Phoenix, Arizona. Do people dream of moving to California? Would people like to visit California?
Atlanta, Georgia. Are there parts of your country or neighboring countries that people see as a golden land or paradise?
Milwaukee, Wisconsin. What might happen in the future?
Charlotte, North Carolina. What could or should people do?
