Don’t forget about underemployment. I am not out of work, but rarely do I work 40 hours. I can only think of three weeks in the last year where I worked 40 hours. Most of the time I lose a day or two days. In June I only worked the equivilent of 7 days the whole month. Often I’d show up work an hour and be sent home.
If only. Me, I think I’ll mold my solution around winning the lottery and ditching the whole shooting match. I’ll buy you a pony on my way out, though, since you seem like the wishing kind.
In the meantime, of course, my voting will reflect my agreement with your premise that we need to discard the current system, and institute a new one.
Soon after I retire, I’d getting out of here and moving to a sane state - like New Jersey. We sent our kids out of state for college. Cost more, but it was well worth it, given how the UC system has been trashed.
And saying everything should be thrown out is not the same as thinking it will be. As long as Californians both complain about taxes being too high and also funding for schools and prisons not being adequate, we’ll never solve the problem.
I left the state (and the country). There were other reasons, but the implosion of the state was certainly a major factor. I was a lecturer in the CSU system, and I was about to be laid off (or more realistically, cut from 100% time to 40% time). The state’s educational system is absolutely terrible, which produces voters who are susceptible to the glibly simplistic soundbites about BAAAAAD taxes. The state has been juggling resources to stay afloat for a long time now, since Prop. 13, and as they run out of options they get increasingly desperate. It looks like the state controller is going to block the implementation of the minimum wage gimmick. I predict a federal bailout in the next two or three years.
I worked for the state in 1974 to 1979. Several years we got what were called “pay warrents” rather than pay checks. Banks could refuse to honor them because they were only a promise to pay and make them good. they wre not called IOU’s but they were in fact just that. Jerry Brown was the gov. then. My wife still likes to give me a bad time because I voted for him once only to regret it.
with a 14 trillion dollar deficit I don’t see the Federal Government writing the check. If by BAAAAAAD taxes you mean high taxes the sound bite was probably heard loudest by businesses that could operate in states with cheaper tax rates.
I meant that all taxes were inherently bad, not that taxes were high. People genuinely didn’t seem to understand that at least some of their taxes were used for the public good.
Regarding your first point, I don’t know… isn’t California “too big to fail” ? I’m not saying I’m right, just that I don’t really understand the logistics of who gets propped up and who doesn’t.
Yes, California falls into the “too big to fail” but the United States is in danger of being downgraded in the credit market. There is a growing call to dump the dollar as a world standard. Just as Greece isn’t the only European country in danger, California is not the only state that could default. In order to rob Peter to pay Paul we have to get additional financing from countries like China. Now we’re pushing our credit rating lower… it’s a self feeding black hole of debt that could consume us all.
I’ve said it before, people don’t understand how tenuous the situation is in the United States as well as Europe. It wouldn’t take much for World markets to collapse overnight.
Yeah. But many of the differences between the American systems, at the Federal and State level, and the Westminster system seem neither here nor there. Apart from this one. It blows my mind that there’s a system of government where there’s no requirement that a budget will be passed on time, or the government falls. Forcing state workers to work on the promise of an IOU is the biggest WTF ever!
I assume you are in CA so just as a piece of advice. Generally labor law in CA provides that hourly employees who show up for their scheduled time and are sent home early receive “reporting time” pay. This is a minimum of 2 hours and a maximum of 4, depending on your scheduled shift (must have scheduled shift of at least 2 hours to apply). There are other exceptions as to the cause of having to send you home early but it doesn’t sound like this is the case in your situation. Many employers do not do this properly and if so there is a potential cause of action or they may remedy it if notified.
Actually, California has a state constitutional requirement that a balanced budget be passed, and timely (It’s June 15 of each year). They just miss the deadline, and more so recently it seems. Even granting the fact that CA has a line item veto, given that our budget is in the many billions, not much gets vetoed unfortunately.
CA has a spending problem. Both through the legislature and the ballot system. I’d support a constitutional convention but I doubt it would ever happen.
I don’t know about California specifically, but here (Georgia, and I suspect many other states), constructive dismissal in and of itself is not illegal. It is only illegal if done to effect a dismissal that would be illegal for other reasons, e.g. to get rid of a member of a protected class (race, sex, age, religion and some other reasons, often varying by state) or to violate some other contract.
We sent our kids out of state for college. Cost more, but it was well worth it, given how the UC system has been trashed.