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[quote=ocrenter]
the key is a system in place to prevent the extreme wealth distribution. it is good for everyone, especially the wealthy.[/quote]

That is why estate taxes (yes death taxes) are good. Along with transfer taxes and gift taxes when you start passing wealth thru trusts to the next generation

The republican base are morons on the estate tax issue.

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Make it a war.

Scott Walker, Wisconsin’s collective bargaining terminator.

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Change the REO rules.

1. Banks, bank subsidiaries, and sub-components of a bank or financial institution is only allowed to hold REO properties for 60 days.

2. Banks and financial institutions must exercise their foreclosure option in a timely manner. Forecloure proceedings need to be started with 120 days of past due. Foreclosure process must be completed, unless brought current within 6 months of beginning the process or past due balance is forgiven.

3. Banks are not allowed to transfer REOs to a subsidiary and need to liquidate them in private market transactions.

The faster we liquidate the better. More debt is not the solution. And if the banks can’t survive, then they need to be out of business.

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I really like how the cities just pop up. They don’t have the bankruptcy discussion until, like Compton, they have $5 million in bills and $3 million in the bank.

Are the cities that badly managed? Do they all believe their own rosy projections of revenues coming in and pay attention when they aren’t?

But hey, why should we be surprise. We had Rizzo in Bell. The Cudahy group are taking plea deals on the corruption charges. The LAFD admits they submitted ‘inaccurate’ data for the review on staffing.

But hey, Governor Brown signed the High Speed Rail plan.

And the UC approved multi-hundred thousand dollar pay packages for a few incoming presidents to smaller schools along with $60,000 a year housing allowances, $12,000 year car allowances yesterday and turn around today and threaten a 20% tuition hike if they don’t get Brown’s tax raise passed.

LOL.

Get your baksheesh, err I mean campaign contributions, ready folks.

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Mello roos weren’t really that bad until just this last boom.

Before that, the mello roos added only a fraction of a percent to the tax bill.

The other stuff is all those special district fees, which, basically is the big shadow government money laundering service.

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[quote=briansd1]

If the major metropolitan areas of the coasts are so bad, I invite those who are aligned red to move to the fly-over states. They are called fly-over for a reason.[/quote]

Because the people saying it are ignorant and have erroneous sense of superiority.

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“If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.” Obama.

Apparently those someone elses better get their act together.

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Sorry BG. The facts in San Bernardino don’t support you. The Bk filing is on the la times today. Tax revenues have fallen a mere 12.8% http://documents.latimes.com/san-bernardino-bankruptcy-report/

Peak revenues in 2007-2008 of $89.7m versus $78.2m in 11-12 (that’s a subset), their total revenue appears to have peaked at $133M in 2007-2008. Don’t know where the rest cost from. The chart on page 13 shows revenues barely dipped.

Its a spending problem. Not a build out problem. Its an inefficiency problem

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Some things are decided out of whack. And I’m sure there is plenty of blame to go around, however, one report I saw from the LA Times basically said that they didn’t have enough revenues to even cover the police budget by itself.

Tax proceeds may have fallen, but they haven’t fallen that much. It’s a sign of the massive over building, over staffing cities have done.

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Yeah, talk with your insurance agent, then a lawyer.

Established trees have surprisingly high values.

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HOAs can be capricious. A good one can go bad easily. All it often takes is one motivated individual selling their unit and leaving the board and the rest fall to bad practices with a newly motivated member pushing some agenda.

You also have two layer of complicity to deal with. There is the HOA board and the Property Management agency.

The PM’s job isn’t to get the community the best deal. Their job is to show reasonable diligence in executing the boards directives. Hence, they have stables of preferred vendors whose qualifications are often the working relationship.

As for the boards, conflicts of interest are so common it should be assumed.

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Theyy’re thinking they’ve successfully turned this into a issue about race and by being pro-immigration they’ll gain cavorted (I mistyped favor my kindlenmade it cavorted. ) with the soon to be future demographic majority

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[quote=briansd1]Like it or nor, the undocumented immigrants already in this country are already part of our society. Ostracizing them turns us into shitheads. Legalizing them is the right humanitarian thing to do. If that attracts more immigrants later, then that’s different issue altogether. It has nothing to with the people already here.
.[/quote]

I’ll just come down to your house and stay a while Brian. I’m already here. I’m staying. Make sure you’ve got a nice IPA in the fridge and maybe a good Pinot Noir.

Oh, and HBO. I’ll want to watch some HBO.

And make sure the AC is working well. I like it really cool at night, so I’ll run your AC to about 62, that’s a good sleeping temp. I can snuggle under the blankets.

It’s just a little expense, don’t worry, you’re a rich american and can afford it.

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[quote=bearishgurl]I understand all this, brian, and, having traveled throughout the western and southern portion of the US, I actually take for granted the wide variety of fresh produce at reasonable prices available to residents of Cali and know why they are “reasonable.”
[/quote]

It’s geographic and cultural and not because of the labor expense. For fresh produce, labor is about 6% of the cost we pay. http://www.cis.org/no_farm_labor_shortages.html

Other studies say labor is 10-30% depending on the produce. I seem to recall grapes being one of the more intensive ones at 30% level. So basically, doubling the wages of farm workers to $18/hr would drive the cost of a pound of grapes from $2.99/lb to $3.99/lb. And honestly, I suspect we’ll still have loss leader grapes in the store at 88 cents/lb.

Both political parties need to be ashamed of themselves in that in the 30 years starting with Reagan they have failed to address the issue.

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[quote=harvey]What I find interesting about those who are against “illegal” immigration is that almost nobody understands the selection process for “legal” immigrants.

Why are some people allowed in, and others aren’t?

What’s the process, and who controls it?

Who decides which immigrants are “legal?”

And why does everyone assume that the current process is “correct?”[/quote]

There are several methods.

The two most common are sponsorship: either employment or personal.

It should be noted that sponsorship of a non-family member is likely a decade long process.

Then is the lottery.

Then is the special diversity lottery for low-immigration countries. That’s mere 50,000 visas a year.

Then there are variations of buying your way in. One way, is investment and ‘job’ creation. If you create enough jobs (I think 5), you can get in. And a net $500,000 investment. There are 10,000 slots for that.

There may be more.

Most importantly, all require a semblance of being self sufficient show they have funds as to not become destitute in the USA.

The medical check and police check are also required. The police check likely requiring many layers of baksheesh in their country of origin and likely of little contributing value other than limiting low level criminals.

Or, the ‘undocumented’ route, pay aa smuggler to bring you through a tunnel, through the fence and desert or other ways through the border and into the city and turn you lose, no checks, no docs, no funds.

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