Thread: California's Terrible Numbers

I know you all think Ca is wacked. It is true. I use to work in a grocery story, and you know how alot of Mexicans have at leat 4 baptismal names like Louis Joseph michael jose ramirz? Well they would collect checks in Louis Ramirz, Jose Ramirz, etc. They would collect unemployment checks from when they would work the fields up north while they worked the fields here in the south and visa versa. I am so sick of living in a thrid world state, but all of my family is here. Sorry the graphs didn't show up.
This was written by Chuck Devore who is running against Barbra Boxer, who by the way needs to go.

July 16, 2009
California's Terrible Numbers
Chuck DeVore - California State Assemblyman
.
12% of the US Population but...
32% of the US welfare rolls

It is often said that California is a window onto America's future. Well, with a heavy tax and regulatory burden, a new greenhouse gas emissions law, and rapidly growing welfare rolls, perhaps America should pay close attention to the Golden State's mistakes. This email details the extent of California's burgeoning welfare rolls.

California accounts for 12% of the U.S. Population but 32% of the welfare caseload. To demonstrate this enormous burden let's compare these numbers relative to other states across the nation:

1) Stack Graphs - This graphical approach allows us to show multiple levels of meaning at once. Each color band represents a specific state. The height of each band on the left represents the state's percentage of the total U.S. population. The height on the right represents the percentage of welfare rolls. These graphs are generated automatically and, as you can see, only California and Texas registered high enough to include the state name on the graphic. Texas has 8% of the U.S. population and is equally burdened by border issues but has only 1/10th of California's welfare rolls.



2) Pie Chart - Everybody loves pie. Unless, of course, your share of the pie represents 32% of America's welfare caseload. You can check our numbers yourself against the federal HHS data showing total number of welfare recipients for 2008 and census population data provided by your U.S. government. In 2007, California had 30% of the nation's welfare load. California's share of the nation's welfare recipients has been soaring since Democrat legislators severely relaxed welfare rules and eligibility while hiking benefits around 2001. The result was as predictable for welfare as California's high taxes and heavy regulations have been for jobs and business.



3) Scatter Plot - It may seem obvious now that California has no peer when it comes welfare recipients across all 50 states but let's keep going. Like our first example, scatter plots allow us to graph multiple points of data in one infographic. The size of the dots below represent the number of welfare rolls in the state. The X-axis position represents this same number in comparison to other dots and the Y-axis represents the over % of welfare rolls. While New York has its own bragging rights (highest per capita spending on welfare rolls), the distance between New York and the other states compared to California is like the distance between the Earth (other states), the Moon (New York), and the Sun (California). California is the only state that refuses to seriously enforce the federal lifetime limit of 5 years of welfare for able-bodied adults. We also have very little fraud enforcement.



4) Colored Map - Shaded maps are not always the best way to display values, unless the contrast is so stark as to emphasize huge exceptions in the data sets. Enough said.



5) Bubble Chart - How many angels can you fit on the head of the pin? You can eyeball the number of states that fit within the California sphere. For over a decade California has refused to enact the welfare reforms set during the historic 1996 welfare-to-work law of the Clinton era - and it shows.



There are many reasons why California is facing the biggest financial crisis in its history. Waste, fraud, and abuse run rampant across the generous entitlement infrastructure which has become a honey pot for many in America who find it easier to accept a taxpayer handout than to work.

This "generosity" with other peoples’ money impels Sacramento lawmakers to give such large sums of working Californians' money to non-working Californians inevitably results in less of the former and more of the latter. This is simple economics, and it's a shame that it escapes the architects of our state's governance today.

The bottom line: when one of the world's top ten economies has America's largest welfare caseload, things have gone terribly wrong. Key Sacramento negotiations are hanging up on this point. Key reforms will return some fiscal sanity to our state's budget. Failure may cause California to be a drag on the national economy. California is a window on America's future... For California's sake and America's sake, we better get it right.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Is there a link?

I found the link:

http://tiny.cc/NAo5B