But, when you also have Chuck DeVore saying that, essentially, poor people should leave the state, is the real risk of losing the California Middle Class? What if the middle class actually takes DeVore up on it?
I bring this up because we are now not only attacking the lower class, which has few options to leave, but also the middle class. Not to be too crass here, but the Republicans have traditionally stuck to the taking from the poorest precisely because they had few options. The poor vote at disproportionately low numbers, but that is not really the case of the middle class.
If we abandon our middle class, we shouldn't be surprised at the consequences. We'll get a less educated work force that is less desirable for investment in the state. Jobs will leave the state, and then eventually so will the Californians. The Reverse Okie Migration is far more likely to occur than the migration of the rich. Of course, the Rich will ultimately find it's hard to develop wealth in a state without a middle class.
In the short-term, it will be very hard to really analyze data for these types of questions. But as our infrastructure deteriorates, our manufacturing sector withers, and the innovation inspired by education diminishes, will the Middle Class really stay in California? Could they afford to?
So, with Arnold's cuts to CalGrants, public schools, community colleges, state parks, and other services utilized heavily by the middle class, will the middle class flee? Is this the way that the California Dream really ends?
