Despite Its Woes, California’s Dream Still Lives – Time Magazine Article from Friday, October 23, 2009

My Dad and I were having a conversation yesterday about, among other things, the current status of the California economy. Our conversation reminded me that I posted this article on my Facebook page back in October when it first came out. But, since I still haven’t implemented an API to capture my FB postings for my blog here, I decided to re-post this Time article manually because it’s an important counter-argument to all the doom and gloom out there about California falling off the face of the earth (financially this time).

It bears repeating, that yes, California has its share of problems like any other state or country. But it also bears repeating that oftentimes situations are unintentionally misunderstood, or intentionally misrepresented for a more salacious impact and higher ratings. After all, we thrive on watching a train wreck. It’s much more exciting than watching a group of people sitting around having an amiable time laughing and gabbing about inane subjects such as what type of cat food Aunt Ruth’s cat ate for dinner last night.

There’s no doubt that California has problems, what with IOUs to people expecting a state tax refund to rotating black outs at fire stations inhibiting response time to emergencies like someone’s house burning down.

But at the same time, there is also no arguing that California is a leader of innovation and technology, oftentimes setting the standard and raising the bar. California is home to Apple, Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Netflix, eBay, Adobe, Cisco Systems, Sun Microsystems, Hewlitt Packard, and yes, Twitter.

Not to mention the Berkeley, Stanford, University of California – Davis.

California is still the place for big-thinkers, risk-takers, innovators, re-inventing yourself, or inventing something new.

Anyway… on to the article:

“California, you may have heard, is an apocalyptic mess of raging wildfires, soaring unemployment, mass foreclosures and political paralysis. It’s dysfunctional. It’s ungovernable. Its bond rating is barely above junk. It’s so broke, it had to hand out IOUs while its leaders debated how many prisoners to release and parks to close. Nevada aired ads mocking California’s business climate to lure its entrepreneurs. The media portray California as a noir fantasyland of overcrowded schools, perpetual droughts, celebrity breakdowns, illegal immigration, hellish congestion and general malaise, captured in headlines like “Meltdown on the Ocean” and “California’s Wipeout Economy” and “Will California Become America’s First Failed State?”"

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1931582-1,00.html