[Henn28]

Well said SmokinJoe. If I had a nickel (well, maybe a dime in today’s economy) for every guy I have worked with from a net-debtor state who told me how awful and screwed up someone else’s state was (always a net-funder state and almost always CA, IL or NY) I would be able to retire comfortably to the wine country of CA.

Why we spend so much time bashing the other guys’ states is beyond me. I get why politicians and the info-tainment media obsess over it (hint: the votes and money pyramid scheme), but why we allow them to play us like this is peak stupidity. We have 50 states for a reason…find one you like and live in it and don’t cry about the other guy’s state.

The cost of gas in CA is just a distraction to draw our focus off of failed policies and amateur-hour behavior from our elected officials who know that many of us only vote and donate money if they can convince us someone else is out to take our sh*t and ruin our lives. Total BS, but we get the government we deserve.

And yes, the top 5 net contributor states (including CA, NY and IL) fund fully 25% of the federal government, while the bottom 5 (mine included) contribute about 1% or 2%. Once federal payments back to those states are factored in the disparity becomes very, very large and represent a terrible investment for the top 5 states. So do they have something to complain about when they look at my arguably failed state (in metrics like education and public health) that they continue to prop up?

Gas prices in Europe average around $7/gal and somehow they get by.

Finally, I hate to admit that I’m old enough to remember when CA’s air quality in some areas was some of the worst in the nation and absolutely contributed to premature death and sickness. Bipartisan action at the state and federal levels has been a resounding success in cleaning up the Golden State’s air, and also has lead to higher gas prices. Can you imagine any of our politicians today finding a bipartisan solution to any of our glaring problems, much less an environmental one? We get the government we deserve.