California's Population Declined in Pandemic's Second Year (apnews.com) 109
America's most populous state is shrinking — at least a little. The Associated Press reports:
With an estimated 39,185,605 residents, California is still the U.S.'s most populous state, putting it far ahead of second-place Texas and its 29.5 million residents. But after years of strong growth brought California tantalizingly close to the 40 million milestone, the state's population is now roughly back to where it was in 2016 after declining by 117,552 people this year.
That's a drop of 0.29% — at least some of which seems attributable to the pandemic. California's population growth had been slowing even before the pandemic as baby boomers' aged, younger generations were having fewer children and more people were moving to other states. But the state's natural growth — more births than deaths — and its robust international immigration had been more than enough to offset those losses. That changed in 2020, when the pandemic killed tens of thousands of people above what would be expected from natural causes, a category demographers refer to as "excess deaths." And it prompted a sharp decline in international immigration because of travel restrictions and limited visas from the federal government.
California's population fell for the first time that year. At the time, state officials thought it was a outlier, the result of a pandemic that turned the world upside down. But the new estimate released Monday by the California Department of Finance showed the trend continued in 2021, although the decline was less than it had been in 2020. State officials pointed specifically to losses in international immigration. California gained 43,300 residents from other countries in 2021. But that was well below the annual average of 140,000 that was common before the pandemic.
The state's official demographer predicts California's population will go back to increasing in 2022.
And even with the decline, the article points out that California "had a record budget surplus last year, and is in line for an even larger one this year of as much as $68 billion — mostly the result of a progressive tax structure and a disproportionate population of billionaires."
That's a drop of 0.29% — at least some of which seems attributable to the pandemic. California's population growth had been slowing even before the pandemic as baby boomers' aged, younger generations were having fewer children and more people were moving to other states. But the state's natural growth — more births than deaths — and its robust international immigration had been more than enough to offset those losses. That changed in 2020, when the pandemic killed tens of thousands of people above what would be expected from natural causes, a category demographers refer to as "excess deaths." And it prompted a sharp decline in international immigration because of travel restrictions and limited visas from the federal government.
California's population fell for the first time that year. At the time, state officials thought it was a outlier, the result of a pandemic that turned the world upside down. But the new estimate released Monday by the California Department of Finance showed the trend continued in 2021, although the decline was less than it had been in 2020. State officials pointed specifically to losses in international immigration. California gained 43,300 residents from other countries in 2021. But that was well below the annual average of 140,000 that was common before the pandemic.
The state's official demographer predicts California's population will go back to increasing in 2022.
And even with the decline, the article points out that California "had a record budget surplus last year, and is in line for an even larger one this year of as much as $68 billion — mostly the result of a progressive tax structure and a disproportionate population of billionaires."
In before ... (Score:3, Informative)
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I live in Austin, where homes can go north, south, east, west, with no real barriers except for a few lakes. However, the rates the homes are going for are on parity with California's... because there are big corporations that bought the land, and they dictate the property values. There are streets full of 5-on-1 condos which have a high vacancy rate... but the owner's don't care, because their stuff appreciated by $5000-$10,000 per day, and homeowners get their stuff going up by $1000 a day.
It isn't the
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Blaming jobs/housing imbalance on NIMBYism is one of those "clear, simple, and wrong" explanations.
Cities don't build housing; investors and developers do that. California cities are REQUIRED to zone for enough housing to meet the State's population-growth estimates. There is nothing NIMBYism can do stop developers from building housing in those areas that are zoned for it.
Construction costs in California are outrageously high, so it isn't possible for developers to make a profit on housing priced at a le
Re: In before ... (Score:2)
"Construction costs in California are outrageously high"
If those costs are so high, how come entances to buildings all have warning signs that your dick is going to fall off upon entry? For that kind of money, I expect the best quality materials all made in America, and men not having to worry about losing their weiner.
There is a huge racket going on. Whatever happened to RICO that was designed to prevent stuff like this?
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The top four states which are diverse and are spread around the edge of the country has about a third of the population. Nowhere in the US outside of cities is d
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It is like I hear about England. Theoretically it is cheaper to live in the north, but no one with a choice wants to that far away from Harrods, or in our case Neimans.
I've lived in the home counties for the last 6 years, the last time I saw a Harrods was at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (before I even moved to the UK).
With the North/South divide (lets not forget the dreary place that is the Midlands either) it's mainly climate and job opportunities. It get's significantly colder the further north you go, especially in the winter months. We're starting to come into Summer here in leafy Berkshire and it's going to stay this good until at least the end of September,
TIme to secede? (Score:1, Insightful)
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Re: TIme to secede? (Score:1, Troll)
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Re: TIme to secede? (Score:5, Insightful)
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The US currently imports 32% of its vegetables, and 55% of its fruits already...the rest doesn't ALL come from California.
The market would sort things out.
Sure, and it would happen overnight.
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Look up slow sailing. To save fuel most container ships dont go any faster than the age of sail.
Re: TIme to secede? (Score:2)
Re: TIme to secede? (Score:5, Informative)
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About 73% of meat and around 2/3 of the vegetables are imported to CA according to the table at https://globaledge.msu.edu/sta... [msu.edu]
Re: TIme to secede? (Score:2)
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And Nestle has been pulling water out for a few decades, bottling it up and selling it back to the country. LOTS of things that shouldn't happen ... have.
Re: TIme to secede? (Score:5, Informative)
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People leave because it's a shitty place to live...I spent two years in Neb...nothing to do and little to see. Oh, and about as flat as a pancake. But, there are plenty of shitty things about CA (where I've spent over a year as well).
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People leave because it's a shitty place to live...I spent two years in Neb...nothing to do and little to see. Oh, and about as flat as a pancake. But, there are plenty of shitty things about CA (where I've spent over a year as well).
If you stay anywhere at all long enough you'll eventually accumulate a list of shitty things about that place. Why should California be any different?
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I think $8/gallon is more realistic. I would gladly pay that much for lower taxes, because taxation is theft, right? Right, red states?
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California is the No 1 Milk producing state (Score:5, Interesting)
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California, a place so terrible that Trump had to build a wall to keep people out.
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Let me help you...
California, we're better than Nicaragua!
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Let them eat kale!
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Red states are subsidized because growing food is not profitable. Wants to stop subsidizing? Enjoy your 30$ gallon of milk
California has more agricultural exports than imports [calchamber.com].
As for agricultural subsidies, countries do that in general because having a food surplus is important for security reasons.
But in the US specifically, red states are subsidized because they're heavily over represented in the Senate and the Electoral College. Either way, if you remove the subsidies agricultural prices go up a bit, but $30/gallon is pretty extreme hyperbole.
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Th
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Well, to be fair, Torchy's tastes pretty good, albeit not as good as your local taco truck. A bit overpriced, too, but my white privilege allows me to have a good salary. Now if they could only do something about the slow drive-through lanes... First world problems FTW.
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For instance if border states from New Mexico to Georgia andFlorida were the southern states, without federal authority providing cover for the white population, conservative rule would fall. It would be a Hispanic and black dominated culture that would
NM isn't majority white, Hispanic is the most common ethnicity also with a 10% showing from the Pueblos. The black population percentage is even smaller than the UK at around 2%.
NM on the whole tends to vote blue.
likely have closer ties to Mexico which would
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There is precedent. [youtu.be]
Re:TIme to secede? (Score:4, Informative)
What you're doing here is easily seen through. Red state wealth is built on illegal immigration as the economies of red states generally rely on those industries that recruit most heavily from said category. Obviously the monied interests in those states dont want to solve the problem of illegal immigration so rather then go after the employers that fuel illegal immigration we get truly idiot solutions like a multi billion dollar wall. Thousands die every single year making the crossing from Africa to Europe but a wall is going to stop illegal immigration into the US. Gimme a fucking break.
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Nobody has claimed that it's gonna stop illegal immigration, but your ilk keep bringing that bullshit up. What it does do is provide another layer of security, just like layers of security on your computer. The cost is miniscule compared to the other expenses we have for border protection. And if it was really going to do nothing, the left wouldn't be whining so much about it.
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The wall's main purpose was to erect a big middle finger pointing south.
It's secondary purpose was grift [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53853297]
It never actually had anything to do with security.
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What you're doing here is easily seen through. Red state wealth is built on illegal immigration
Erm... Isn't red state wealth based on blue states taxation? Of the red states aren't the only net contributors (those who pay more in federal taxes than they receive) Florida and Texas?
But I get what you mean, the "Faketriots" who go on about illegal immigration seem to be utterly two faced about it. They want the benefits of having "illegals" working (I.E. lower prices, not having to do things themselves) but still want to punish them for being "illegal".
If you want to seriously curtail illegal immi
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I think number 2 would be an easy sell to most Americans but sadly there isn't a political party that advocates for such although I do occasionally hear buzz from conservative think tanks about mandatory e-verify. Said idea has completely failed to gain any traction among conservatives though, all we get from them are completely unrealistic money pits like a wall.
Plus if we find we're short on farm labor or in some other area of our economy that "depends" on illegal immigration we can just let more people i
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It seems all of California's problems are because of being part of the US. With control of its own borders it can enact immigrant friendly laws. And wont have to subsidize the red states anymore. Its already running a budget surplus but if needed it could also print its own currency and run a deficit.
The idea that California subsides other states has been debunked many times.
For example, California is #1 in population among US states, but #45 in percentage of retirees. This tells us that huge numbers of people retire and leave California. This means that taxes spent on the social security and medi-care of these people are leaving California because the people themselves are leaving. It's not a subsidy. It's actually a benefit to California, because they trade people mostly on a low fixed income in h
County states (Score:1)
Everyone's population growth is down (Score:3, Interesting)
We're seeing the two trends in california. First is the aforementioned declining birth rates finally catching up with the country and second is reduced immigration illegal or otherwise. Some of that is up to the political realities and some of that is just because Mexico and South America are gradually modernizing despite our best efforts to prevent them from doing so and as they do their birth rates go down too and they want to keep their young people the same as any other country does.
Assuming we don't to send into neo feudalism there's going to be significant competition for young people in the near future as birth rates continue to decline. There's a gel for male birth control in its second year of trials right now that not only has no side effects so far but actually seems to make men feel better because it's a testosterone. It's scheduled to hit the market in 2025. And while America might ban female birth control I doubt we'll do the same for male birth control. If you think our birth rate is low now you wait until men have control.
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Yes patriotism is a strong force for doing evil.
Yes and no (Score:4, Informative)
I've read that more and more Starbucks are unionizing. So many that it's getting to the point where you'll be able to choose a union Starbucks over a non-Union one. And I felt a twinge of something I hadn't felt since I was a little, little kid: patriotism.
Why over Unions? Because Unions are the 5th estate. They're a fundamental institution of any community. A place where we're all welcome and not judged because we're all in it together. Without them and institutions like them the community falls apart, and all that's left of patriotism is the bad stuff, the jingoism and the like.
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It's a hole? A hole in one, perhaps?
Or was that "as a whole"?
If the latter, I'll generously assume you were using a speech-to-text converter. Because otherwise I have to assume you're semiliterate, at best....
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It happens when you don't fight crime and say you're going to defund police. Screw the government. All of it is corrupt.
The police are part of the government, so they're corrupt, and you support defunding them right? Decide what you believe in before wasting our time with any more of this blather.
How big a budget deficit will we have next year? (Score:5, Insightful)
More than 80% of California's income tax comes from the top 10% of earners, and much of that is from capital gains (which California taxes at the same rate as earned income). In the last 2 years, the tech-heavy NASDAQ shot up 40% and then 20%; harvesting those gains generated tens of billions of dollars of taxes.
But in 2022, the NASDAQ is down 25% and counting.
I see daily articles in my California newspaper about all the ways we're going to spend the "record budget surplus". Many of them on new programs with ongoing costs. But very little about what we're going to do next year when we realize the NASDAQ doesn't go up 20% every year. Might have something to do with the upcoming election.
The inevitable budget crisis will lead to calls for new "temporary" taxes on the top 10%, just like the last recession. And while I'm fine with increasing taxes on people who make more money than I do, at some point we're going to kill the golden goose.
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Yes, increasing taxes on the ultra-rich will reduce income inequality.
What's the downside?
Re: How big a budget deficit will we have next yea (Score:4, Informative)
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Oh no, anyway.
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Re: How big a budget deficit will we have next yea (Score:4, Insightful)
Let them. Just opens up more opportunities for others.
Once you allow yourself to be held hostage by the threat of rich people leaving, massive inequality and exploitation are inevitable.
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Re: How big a budget deficit will we have next yea (Score:4, Interesting)
They leave the state.
Then good riddance to bad rubbish. They don't pay any taxes worth mentioning anyway so what would we be deprived of ? ... other than parasites who tear up our infrastructure and use up our public services while contributing nothing to society other than corruption.
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Then good riddance to bad rubbish. They don't pay any taxes worth mentioning anyway so what would we be deprived of ? ... other than parasites who tear up our infrastructure and use up our public services while contributing nothing to society other than corruption.
...The top 1% of California taxpayers pay more than half of the total income tax. That seems worth mentioning.
Look at how much income tax you pay, and I pay, and everyone else we know in California pays. Add that all up. The top 1% still pays m
Fighting climate change at the source. (Score:2)
And how does that compare to other states? (Score:2)
Get woke go.... (Score:1)
*checks notes*
Richer and richer apparently.
of course, it's covid (Score:1, Troll)
For years we keep hearing anecdotally about the flight from California because it's high tax yet a literal shit hole.
These are inevitably followed by angry angsty rebuttals, insisting that people love to pay high taxes, tiptoe around legions of homeless while slipping in their street-feces, and nobody's leaving California.
Now, when it turns out the population is in net decline it's COVID that caused it.
Sure, and Putin invading Ukraine caused last year's inflation.
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When the people of TX are complaining that there are so many Californians coming into places like Austin that they're changing it to more like CA, I think that's pretty irrefutable.
Which then leads to the question: why are some people so invested in INSISTING people aren't leaving CA when they clearly are?
And how often are these the people who are saying things like "fake news" in other contexts?
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Regadless of ideology (Score:2, Insightful)
In Silicon Valley Housing Prices Crushing Workers (Score:3)
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California has always been called overcrowded... (Score:1)