California

I saw a map and article today showing that California has the sixth largest economy in the world. This is not news, but it inspired the following thought.

Do you know WHY California has such a huge economy? There are, of course, many reasons.

• Vast wealth of natural resources
• Huge agricultural areas with near-perfect conditions for growing almost everything
• A climate that draws people from everywhere
• Harbors and seaports both natural (San Diego, San Francisco/Oakland) and man-made (San Pedro / Long Beach) that naturally attract trade and money
• A gold rush in 1848-50 that drew thousands of people who stayed and later brought their friends and families, creating economic development relatively early in  US history
• Proximity—relatively speaking—to huge trading partners in the East
• A benign geography—i.e., lots of valleys and flatlands, not too many mountains

But you know what is—in my humble opinion, of course—the biggest single factor contributing to California's amazing economic situation?

Liberals and Progressives!

As of the moment, California is intensely liberal/progressive, and it has a long history of welcoming new people, new ideas, do-your-own-thing-ism, move wherever you want, be creative, break with tradition—and vote for people who champion political inclusiveness, social spending, government programs, and environmental protection.

While the rest of the country (with exceptions) is in thrall to backwards-looking Conservatives who want to turn back the clock and Make America Great Again, California is bursting into the future with millions of illegal immigrants, zillions of ideas turning into businesses—and making scads of money doing so.

So too bad for all those red states. We don't know for certain that it's their backward-looking, out-dated, intolerant, nationalistic, militaristic Conservative values that are making them poorer and ever-worse places to live, but it hardly seems a coincidence that red states are in decline and the blue ones are prospering.

But hey, you dumb asses in all those impoverished and deteriorating states in the South and Midwest, just keep voting for Republicans; I'm sure that their reverse-Robin Hood tactics and trickle-down economic delusions will produce prosperity and well-being any day now.