Ah, California wants a Beacon of Hope and prosperity and 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 foreign [Music]
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 Calif fornia 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 airbnbs 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
thank you 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
[Music] 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 I always remember watching those super scoopers those planes that scoop up water from
lake or the ocean and they can fly off and just dump it on a wildfire or whatever those seem to
work pretty good and I remember years ago they said they had to keep leasing them from Canada
or something like that why not buy our own that's what I was thinking back then why not buy our own
then we don't have to lease them from Canada or whoever and they're all on standby why don't we
have 20 of these things they cost 30 million dollars that's a pretty big chunk of change
but when you think about what they do seems like a worthy investment anyway I think the
United States should probably have 20 or 30 of these things Canada has 64. the United States
has four of them Los Angeles County has one San Diego County has one and the United States forest
service has two Italy has 19. to be fair that was the 2019 count that we had if we
got more since then I don't know that's last time I could find any data on that [Music]
so in come 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