Two interesting narratives have been forming over the past few weeks and they contradict what Republicans have been saying for generations: The Republican Party actually hurts business and the place the Super Rich prefer to live appears to be none other than liberal haven, California!
Republicans are Hurting Business
1.) While the facts have been pointed out in article after article in publication after publication, it took the Huffington Post to compile them into one big list. The impact is pretty clear, austerity has cost the US 2 million jobs! Sales figures too were cut by normal Republican supporters like Walmart and Target because of cuts tot he Food Stamp Program and the Republican Pay Roll Tax Increase. Defense contractors, many in red states, like Lockhead Martin have slashed jobs (4000 at Lockhead Martin alone). CEOs from Dollar General to Cisco blame the Government Shutdown for impacting their businesses in a severely negative way.
Ironically, the Tea Party has become the bane of Republican business, even though it’s movement was born by an angry CNBC reporter on the floor of the Chicago Commodities Exchange and was funded by billionaires like the Koch Brothers, Sheldon Aidelson, and a great deal of other bitter rich people.
Today a counter-Tea Party is underway, funded by business Republicans. They recently scored a huge symbolic victory in Alabama and plan a massive attack in next year’s Congressional elections.
The Rich Love the California Sun
2.) Banking giant and appropriately named corporation UBS recently financed the Wealth-X study to determine which State in the Union had the largest population of elite super rich residents, which they determine as having a net worth of at least $30 million. According to the survey, not only did California beat out Texas, Florida, Illinois and even New York, it overwhelmingly defeated them all. Other than that there is almost no competition.
Furthermore, before you attack THIS survey, the results are conclusive with the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality.
Despite all the talk of California being the next Greece (accusations that proved to turn out false, since the state and even City of LA both have a surplus), super wealthy people just couldn’t resist the beauty of the Golden State or the freedom of the California lifestyle. Go figure!
The Koch Brother’s California home in Rancho Mirage.
Wanna see why? Read Curbed – LA sometime. While it has some cool articles about transportation projects and civic improvement, most of what is posted each day are the extravagant homes of the super wealthy that go on the market. There is no shortage of homes with extremely high asking prices in areas that are not even that nice. People buy them at costs into the double-digit millions and that is just LA. Up north along the coast on the way to the original palace of rich eccentric behavior, Hearst Castle, and south in Orange County’s gated canyons, you will find wealth of an obscene nature. Remember, Mitt Romney and the Koch Brothers still live here. Proof that when you are genuinely wealthy, and you make more money in a year than most people make in a lifetime, you can afford to pay slightly higher taxes. If you like your home, you will stay because you can afford to.
Another interesting find in the survey. New York is a distant but easy second place while the state with the largest percentage gain of super-rich was the other liberal haven Massachusetts.
You can’t read into these things too much, though when one state dominates the forecast, it sure seems as if there really is only one way to read it. Especially when that conclusion completely contradicts the myths and assumptions from an entire political ideological movement (conservatism) and its surrounding subsidiaries (libertarian, Tea Party, religious right, etc.).
It seems to lead to a much larger conclusion, that these people are just full of hot air and their politics is very out of touch with reality!
