New York governor Andrew Cuomo has resigned. Those familiar with Dante's Divine Comedy may say he should be confined to the Inferno's eighth ring, where all disgraced politicans must end. Well, he has fallen and others are teetering. In California, one of the top 10 economies in the world, we find Governor Newsom facing a recall election. He has contributed to the continuing decline of the state, the former El Dorado of the nation, where people are now leaving because living conditions have continued to decline. To make a judgment, let us count the strikes against him.
Strike number one: The business climate for small and medium size businesses has deteriorated causing about 19,000 business to either close or leave the state. High taxes, increasing home prices, and extremely high gasoline prices in a state where most workers travel to work in automobiles on highly congested highways, all contribute to disillusionment with the government. Also, the crime rate continues to increase and even convicted felons can defraud the unemployment system for millions of dollars.
Strike number two: The state has regulated housing development almost out of existence, thereby creating a lack of affordable homes due to the inflated cost of construction; further aggravating living conditions, the state has the largest number of homeless and welfare recipients in the history of this or any other state. Due to these and other conditions, the official population of the state has decreased for the first time in modern history, and consequentially California will lose one representative in the U.S. Congress. Each representative represents at least half a million persons.