So what happens next month if/when California goes bankrupt?

[Javaman]

It's one of the largest economies in the world.

This really concerns me.

[closeupready]

1. it will hurt, but it will be an isolated incident.

In the end, CA will have to throw out Prop. 13, and raise taxes on the wealthy.

[scheming daemons]

2. California is one of the largest economies... but the California GOVERNMENT is not....

There'll be emergency cuts in services.... but the private sector will trudge along.

[FSogol]

4. +1

It'll also be the Gropenator's swan song.

[Cleita]

9. Always a silver lining isn't there?

Although, I don't like the fact that people will suffer, how nice to send that idiot packing back to the private sector.

[XemaSab]

15. At least in my industry, the private sector is already in horrible shape

:shrug:

[anigbrowl]

3. #3. I don't think it'll be that drastic outside of CA

for that matter, I don't think it'll be that drastic inside of CA. By 'drastic' I mean I don't expect riots or social collapse - but it will get worse in terms of job cuts and services etc., which may build the pressure for a constitutional convention and wholesale reform.

[Turbineguy]

5. There's no sense in having a government

if you are going to have propositions where people simply vote based on their short-term self interest and bad propaganda. You may as well have republicans running things. Oh.. wait.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

6. the people will say, "Enough already!"

and some sensible solutions will come forth to save California and the rest of the world. ("You may say I'm a dreamer, But I'm not the only one...."

[Donnachaidh]

7. perhaps the good folks in CA will introduce Ah-nuld to a TOTAL RECALL.

Dumb frigging move voting a washed up actor into the Governor's job. Wonder how many will even ADMIT they voted for that asshole NOW?

[TahitiNut]

8. Maybe the government of the State of California will be outsourced. Japan? China? Taiwan?

:shrug:

[Cleita]

10. The rich counties will probably pick up what the state can no longer handle.

The poor counties will suffer. We will survive. We always do. This may be an opportunity to overhaul our state government if we get some intelligent heads doing something about it.

[pscot]

12. "We always do"?

Does this sort of thing happen often? It's been a while since I lived in California, but I don't recall anything remotely similar.

[Cleita]

13. Periodically. I've lived here on and off since 1941.

It always happens when we get a Republican Governor. It's like the people of California never learn. Recalling Davis months into his second term was a disaster because, besides the Enron fiasco, he was also cleaning up Pete Wilson's mess his first term and was starting to make headway. Republicans do not seem to care about our nation and always lead us to the brink, yet some never learn. So what does Arnold do? He hires Pete Wilson as a consultant. This is why we are here today.

[SidneyCarton]

11. Hard to say.

I don't think we've ever had a default so big before. The closest thing I can think of is when NYC went broke in the late 70's and Ford refused a bailout. There were massive cuts in social welfare, a large increase in crime, and parts of the city really went to hell in a pot. The difference here is that we're talking about a state with a population of approx. 38 million people. I would say that neighboring states should expect an influx of younger Californians, looking for opportunity and work they can't find at home. They will probably head for the northwest (sorry Oregon and Washington) or for Nevada, Utah, or Texas (it's further away, but it has a large economy of its own, and there are likely to be jobs there.

Ironically, if things get bad enough, you might see a reverse of the Okie migration of the 1930's, but I doubt it will get quite that bad.

[1]

14. outside of california, no one will notice...

california has always had an overblown sense of importance.

[blue_onyx]

16. California will eventually solve the budget problem

It's just a matter of how much damage will be done. Hopefully their congress/Governor are able to come to some solution that will protect important things (health care, education, etc) as much as possible. I, however, don't think the government issues in California will have much of an effect on other states.