California 2021: What a Year It Was

(My Epoch Times Article)

Despite the problems, this was a pretty good year for California. Here’s a review.

Surviving COVID. January 2021 began with the continued resurgence of COVID-19, mainly the Delta Variant. It soared to more than 100,000 new cases a day in the state, before dropping quickly in March. Fall saw a smaller rise in cases. Yours truly got a mild case in mid-November.

Another surge is occurring now, but of the Omicron Variant, which is much more contagious, but seems to be milder. The doom and gloom that descended on the country in early 2020 lifted in mid-2021 and does not seem to be returning, despite the Omicron scare.

Economic resurgence. The state’s economy roared back with a massive recovery, led as usual in recent decades by Silicon Valley. The top companies in the world by market capitalization are: Apple, $2.9 trillion. Microsoft (big presence in Silicon Valley), $2.7 trillion. Alphabet/Google, $1.9 trillion.

The negative is many smaller companies are heading to Texas, Florida, and other low-tax states to avoid the immense expense of living in California. But for top computer companies and hot-shot programmers, to adapt the old “Beverly Hillbillies” theme song: “The Valley is the place you ought to be.”

Budget surplus. As I detailed in my previous article, the state is expected to enjoy a $31 billion budget surplus this coming fiscal year, 2022-23. That’s on top of the $47 billion of the previous year. Silicon Valley profits = a geyser of extra tax revenues.

I think they could spend the extra revenues more wisely. But if you recall the pain of the years of $40 billion deficits, such as 2001 or 2009, any surplus is great.

Parental awareness. By keeping kids at home, COVID opened parents’ eyes to what really was in the schools’ curriculums. This was most dramatically seen in Virginia for its November gubernatorial election. Former Gov. Terry McAuliffe told parents they had no business poking into what was going on in their kids’ classrooms. Voters ditched him.

After Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law mandating divisive “ethnic studies” courses (instead of something sensible such as more classes in foreign languages), parents started revolting. The Epoch Times reported on Oct. 7, “Parents opposed to critical race theory (CRT) in California classrooms are outraged over accusations from school boards that criticism of ethnic studies curriculums based on CRT and other neo-Marxist ideologies is akin to domestic terrorism.”

READ THE REST HERE:

https://www.theepochtimes.com/california-2021-what-a-year-it-was_4184673.html