AGENDA 21 RADIO

BY CHRISS STREET, NEWPORT BEACH, CA

U.S. News ranks the 50 U.S. states each year on 8 major social and economic categories to determine an overall competitive ranking. California received a 2018 overall score of 32, based on sub-category rankings for a Health Care score of 11; Education score of 26; Economy score of 4; Opportunity score of 46; Infrastructure score of 38; Crime and Corrections score of 28; Fiscal Stability score of 43; and Quality of Life score of 50.

Despite being the largest economy in the nation, U.S. News found California’s high cost of living as its biggest detriment. San Jose and San Francisco both ranked in the 20-top place to live in U.S., but two communities were also in the most expensive for housing.

California’s 2016 median household income of $67,739 was ranked 9^th nationally. The 18 percent higher income average compared to the national average of $57,617 may seem attractive, but California also had 4 of North America’s top 10highest cost of living cities.

California’s income reporting is being pushed up by the state’s large concentrations of Hollywood’s media celebrities, Silicon Valley technologists and Orange County real estate developers that consistently make huge amounts of money.

But the state’s largest industries are more middle-class including professional and business services; educational and health services; financial activities; leisure and hospitality; retail trade; manufacturing; construction; information processing; and farming.

U.S. News found that California’s infrastructure and housing availability have not kept up with an immigrant population surge over the last two decades. A nation high, three in 10 Californians were born outside the U.S., with about half of the immigrants moving up from Latin America and about 39 percent coming from Asia.

Breitbart News reported in December that Southern California’s resident population experienced a “net domestic outmigration” of 64,953 for the last 12-month period. About 85 percent of California’s outmigration was concentrated in the middle 20 percent income bracket and the next lower quintile bracket.

U.S. News found on the plus side, California continues to have many of the nation’s top universities, including Stanford, California Institute of Technology University of California campuses at Berkeley and Los Angeles, and the University of Southern California.

The state also has unmatched natural beauty including 840 miles of coastline and scenic beauties such Yosemite National Park, Lake Tahoe and the Wine Country.

U.S. News highlighted that although California politically leans Democrat with millennials and Latinos as the largest number of newly registered voters, religion is important to Californians with about a third of adult residents attending weekly services.

U.S News found that California business leaders are subject to very high costs to comply with a “capricious” state and local government regulatory system. The financial burden is seen as an increasing job killer for “smaller firms that are the least able to bear the costs.”