Miserable Cities

For decades, the state of California was the land of opportunity. The Golden State! Anybody who got there was sure to make it rich.

Of course we now know that their crazy spending and total disregard for reality, has put them on a collision course with bankruptcy.

And we continue to watch California because it might be what's coming for the rest of us.

California residents are pretty miserable, according to Forbes’ list of the most unhappy cities in the United States. California cities account for eight of the 20 most miserable places in the U.S., and four of the top five. Falling home prices, high unemployment, high crime, steep state taxes, and a large budget deficit have brought a lot of Californians down in recent months.

"Both California and Florida have a history of boom and bust economies,” Kurt Badenhausen, Forbes senior editor, told Reuters. “People flooded to these states because of the weather during the boom years but that helped inflate the massive bubble in housing."

In Stockton, home prices have fallen by 58 percent over the last three years and unemployment has averaged 14.3 percent--and projected to rise to 18.1 percent in 2011.

"Stockton has issues that it needs to address, but an article like this is the equivalent of bayoneting the wounded," Bob Deis, Stockton city manager, told Forbes.

Read more: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/109124/20110204/top-most-miserable-cities.htm#ixzz1DJeFRwDp

Yep,...lower your home values by 58%, lose your job, cut the benefits your city has provided, ramp up crime and be told that it's going to get worse before it gets any better......that sounds like a recipe for being pretty miserable.

I wonder if the state had been built up on a Biblical foundation instead of a worldly foundation...if it would still be prospering?