California, the ninth largest economy in the world, resorts to austerity!

Taking a deep breath, California's most powerful man strode to a lectern and unveiled the fiscal policy that he hopes will keep America's most populous state from falling into bankruptcy.

Source

Uh oh! I guess we've seen this coming for a while.... looks like major major cuts are coming to Cali, so be warned!

Welfare payments, healthcare for the poor, and benefits for elderly and disabled Californians will be immediately slashed by around $8.3bn (£5.2bn), which equates to roughly 17 per cent of Mr Brown's entire discretionary budget. And state offices, which employ roughly 200,000 people, will switch to a four-day, 38-hour work week.

Wow.. those seem like harsh cuts! Isn't there something else Cali can cut besides making the poor and unemployed suffer for the years of poor management?!

I haven't checked into it for a while, but wasn't there a plan to legalize marijuana to make some tax money back?!

Anyways, your thoughts?!

Not only that hows the postal system supposed to work when they only do 4 day work weeks? Will this mean less police too because they have to cut back on their hours. what about firemen. maybe I'm looking at the wrong issues.

You said it right. why should the poor have to suffer EVEN MORE than they already are getting the short straw for the states bad management.

This is the result of unfettered socialism. Washington next.

Originally posted by DarthMuerte
This is the result of unfettered socialism. Washington next.

Nope, it is the result of unfettered greed by the so called capitalist whiz-kids in Wall St

Well, it's a band-aid anyway. Thats about all it is, since the Pensions and benefits won't stop climbing. The hole will keep getting deeper...but at least this fills a bit for 1 year. It's some hard core cutting though and California may have some rough times over what is sure to be a summer of unrest and protests..... Cuts at those %'s in benefits and welfare on people living on the edge now will shove many right over. Not good in a state where unemployment is already over 20% in some local areas. Ouch...

(snip)
I'll drop my comment about Obama...as casual as it was anyway. I think the point is made pretty absurd by already seeing one person blaming socialist policies while another blames capitalism. Yeah, as if these problems just started over the last 10 years or something. California's problems ...ironically...started in some ways BY THIS MAN, the LAST time he was Governor. Let's not forget this is Gov. Moonbeam. California's great hope under Carter. Ugh.....

The problems here aren't right/left or any ideology though. It's plain old BAD public policies but more, it's kicking the can down the road for a couple decades now. The bill is coming due...

Originally posted by PrinceDreamer

Originally posted by DarthMuerte
This is the result of unfettered socialism. Washington next.

Nope, it is the result of unfettered greed by the so called capitalist whiz-kids in Wall St

LOL, no "unfettered capitalism" in the socialist republic of California. There was no massive defense spending for you liberals to blame here. This is purely a result of greedy public employee unions, and entitlements with a huge helping of illegal immigrants garnering their "fair share".

Sounds like a way to get the people up in arms and vote for more taxes. There is a lot of other cuts that California could make, but that wouldn't put the pressure on the people for taxes.

They have transportation projects, government jobs, etc that no mention was made of for example. Politicians are some of the worst kind of human beings, along with bankers!

I will never under stand why the citizens allow the government to attack the social security or benifits of the elderly when it comes down to cuts to the budget. Like one other poster above me pointed out, there are many other programs that could be cut instead.

Originally posted by mileysubet
I will never under stand why the citizens allow the government to attack the social security or benifits of the elderly when it comes down to cuts to the budget. Like one other poster above me pointed out, there are many other programs that could be cut instead.

I will never understand why citizens allow governments to enslave them, their children, and their children's children with trillions of dollars of debt.

Yeah, how about some of those 12345holes give their salary, pensions, etc. right back.

The 12345heads that GET the most, need to GIVE the most.

Starting with the politicians.

Lobbys (sp) and banks next.

also I really like how some of these 5678 commies think that gov money just comes out of thin air.

Originally posted by rbnhd76
Yeah, how about some of those 12345holes give their salary, pensions, etc. right back.

The 12345heads that GET the most, need to GIVE the most.

Starting with the politicians.

Lobbys (sp) and banks next.

also I really like how some of these 5678 commies think that gov money just comes out of thin air.

edit on 16-5-2012 by rbnhd76 because: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 calm down

Well said. However socialists are only "generous" with other people's money. Never their money.

California has a very long list of problems to overcome, that's for sure.

I believe one of the more obvious hurdles is the insane amount of money California spends on the Prison system. California spends more money incarcerating inmates than the entire GDP of Iceland.

When the State spends more money per inmate than what the average citizen makes a year, there is something wrong with that.

Tell me about it...Cali lost its federal unemployment extensions with the hoax that unemployment in Cali has fallen below national average....who do they think they are lying to?

and Jerry wants to cut $8 billion from the budget?
where he cuts it will send the state into the largest depression a state has ever seen.
Agreed Gov. is too big, is the solution then to stop the economy all together
and grow Welfare in its stead?
Flip side is will they actually happen?

Or is Jerry Brown looking like the good boy scout trolling for a conservative voter base?

This guy is a classic Moron

California, so goes the Country!!!

Originally posted by DarthMuerte
This is the result of unfettered socialism. Washington next.

What?

No, California is not socialist lol. Liberal yes, but liberalism is not socialism.

Socialism is the workers ownership of the means of production. Cali has a capitalist economy like the rest of y'all.
Hand outs from the government is not socialism.

The acknowledged aim of socialism is to take the means of production out of the hands of the capitalist class and place them into the hands of the workers. This aim is sometimes spoken of as public ownership, sometimes as common ownership of the production apparatus. There is, however, a marked and fundamental difference.

Public ownership is the ownership, i.e. the right of disposal, by a public body representing society, by government, state power or some other political body. The persons forming this body, the politicians, officials, leaders, secretaries, managers, are the direct masters of the production apparatus; they direct and regulate the process of production; they command the workers. Common ownership is the right of disposal by the workers themselves; the working class itself — taken in the widest sense of all that partake in really productive work, including employees, farmers, scientists — is direct master of the production apparatus, managing, directing, and regulating the process of production which is, indeed, their common work.

www.marxists.org...

Socialism would be an answer to the problems, not the cause of them.