I'm Praying For Rain In California

A few interesting statistics concerning California:

California has more than 38 million residents. Despite net losses of millions of residents to other states, California continues to grow through immigration.  Latinos now equal the number of non-Hispanic whites in California.

California ... has one of the nation’s highest unemployment rates.

...more than 30% of the nation’s welfare recipients are Californians – even though California has just 12% of the nation’s population.

...California is ranked number one in poverty.

The cause for those bad statistics is bad government policy.  California is the most regulated, highest-taxed, most in-debt state in America.

Beyond debt, Governor Brown recently signed a huge tax increase featuring a top rate of 13.3%.  Overall, California taxes are 42% higher than Texas.  California also has the most extreme/job-threatening global warming law in the world, which includes a 15-cent gas tax increase slated to take effect in 2015 – on top of the already record gas prices.

Which brings us to the present. California is suffering from a severe water shortage. Some of that is due to a multi-year severe drought. Some is due to crumbling infrastructure. Some is a result of absurd environmental policies.

And some of it is due to the presence of a large number of illegal immigrants.

Think about it. There are nearly 3 million illegal aliens living in California, and that doesn’t include the millions of “anchor babies” that also reside here. The number of anchor babies is hard to calculate, but the kindest of estimates puts one anchor baby per illegal immigrant, so let’s set the number at 3 million. That makes 6 million people, who shouldn’t even be in this country, living in California and using up our resources.

If the government would enforce the law, the water drought wouldn’t even be an issue. There would be plenty to go around. Instead, we have a massive group of illegal people literally draining our water reserves. Gov. Brown wants Californians to use 20% less water, which is approximately the percentage of the population that is illegal. Get rid of the undocumented and the problem is solved.

California, especially the Southern portion of the state, is not a place that is naturally equipped to support a population of 38 million. Southern California is a desert and relies too much on Mother Nature and an antiquated aqueduct system to deliver water to its people. When the rain stops falling and the population grows, the drought problem gets worse.

Speaking of Governor Moonbeam, he's part of the problem as well.

Brown recently killed a proposed water bond of $11.4 billion because he said it would “break the bank.” Apparently $68 billion (for a controversial high-speed rail project "for which there is no significant consumer demand and, like most every rail system, will likely require endless public subsidies and therefore add to the debt crisis") won’t break the bank, but $11.4 billion would.

... without a far-reaching effort such as building 60 desalination plants at the same cost as the high-speed rail project – plants that won’t need future subsidies - the California economy is on an economic collision course with immigration.

If you're like me, you really don't care too much about what happens in California. After all, they made their own bed, so let them sleep in it, right?

Unfortunately, California's bungled management of the drought could have far-reaching implications for the rest of the country's future.

That future could very well mean fewer people in the dry West and coastal areas of the East and South, and more people in the comparatively water-rich Midwest. And if you're looking for a historical analogy that could illustrate the change, look no further than the 1930s-era Dust Bowl.

California was perhaps the chief beneficiary of the migration generated by the Dust Bowl, as residents of the Great Plains saw their livelihoods disappear in the drought conditions. From PBS' The American Experience show on the Dust Bowl:

When the drought and dust storms showed no signs of letting up, many people abandoned their land. Others would have stayed but were forced out when they lost their land in bank foreclosures. In all, one-quarter of the population left, packing everything they owned into their cars and trucks, and headed west toward California...

The Dust Bowl exodus was the largest migration in American history...

So what does this mean for today's drought-stricken areas?

It could mean that agriculture in the West begins to shrink, and workers become displaced.

It could mean that other businesses that are dependent on a consistent and secure source of water for production may start to look for other locations. 

It could mean that stringent water conservation and water management practices may cause changes in water pricing, and higher prices, combined with greater scarcity, may cause people to look elsewhere. 

It could mean that the cities of the Rust Belt may become a viable relocation option with its abundant water resources.

Wouldn't that be ironic? Refugees abandoning one failed democrat stronghold and fleeing to others.

There's one other potential consequence of the drought - a very serious one that might affect me personally.

Why wine drinkers should worry about the California drought

As California suffers from its worst drought in a century, local grape farmers are warning wine could be the next big casualty.

The state is suffering from its third consecutive dry year and water levels are running critically low.

The problem is a big deal for vineyard owners now, and will soon be one for wine drinkers too with California the largest wine market in the world. It supplies 90 percent of all US wine and is the world’s fourth-leading wine producer, after France, Italy and Spain.

 Dry conditions are likely to reduce grape production at many vineyards by as much as 25 percent in the coming years.

The stress of a drought can also affect the quality of the fruit that is managing to grow, so consumers could soon start tasting the difference.

That means the price of my favorite box of wine could skyrocket, while the quality declines.

I'm praying for rain in California...