During the past decade, the state of California has been one of the fastest growing economies of the United States. The substantial growth has positioned California as the top one economy in the United States, with a gross domestic production of approximately 2.3 trillion dollars for the fiscal year 2014. The state of California has also ranked number eight in the largest world economies, passing countries like Italy and Russia (Young, 2014). Although many factors have led to this growth, the most influential have been related to the high investment of private industries and the increases on international trade and the real estate sector.
The state of California accounts for 13.2% of the United States production and after falling behind the U.S. percentage growth rate on 2008, California has experienced a constant recovery. After 2012, the state has constantly reached higher percentage growth rates than the U.S, reaching 2.8% on 2014 compared to the 2.2 % of the overall U.S. (Garosi & Sisney, 2015). Since 2004, the state of California increased its GDP by 29%. The state started with a GDP of $1,643,908 dollars on 2004 and constantly increased its GDP reaching $2,305,921 dollars on 2014. The state only faced declines as a product of the depression when on 2009 its GDP declined 4% from $1,997,225 dollars to $1,915,723 dollars. Although this declined was produced by a combination of variables, the biggest declines occurred in the trade sector that declined by 6.4% and the private industry sector that declined by 5%. The private industry sector alone has increased 40% since 2004 and now accounts for approximately 85% of the production of the state of California. With projected growth rates of 2.8% California’s GDP is expected to con...
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... the last decade, it can be concluded that the state and economic experts have failed to create mechanisms that could aid and promote growth in those marginal cities that slow down the state’s economic growth. Different regulations, as well as incentives, could be implemented in those cities to promote the creation of jobs and that way lower the unemployment rate. With the expansion of the GDP, the cost of living has also raised for the citizens of California, causing millions of people who do not have equal access to high disposable personal incomes to live in poverty. In the long run, this huge gap between the developments of the different areas could really harm the economy for the state of California, by dividing the population into poor and rich areas, and making it impossible for the poorer population to put up with the overall high cost of living of the state.
In Barbara Berlund’s Making San Francisco American: Cultural Frontiers in the Urban West, Berlund explains how San Francisco grew from a young settlement which grew rapidly thanks to in part of the California Gold Rush which took place in 1949. Of course with the growing of this small settlement came it’s conflicts and how it rised to where it stands present day. A primary factor which helped San Francisco flourish a ton was the influence from those who had power and chose what would happen throughout the city, for example the Big 4. Those who were wealthy did not make this city what it is today without the help of people who made up the middle class as well. Every establishment within this city set the social order as to how the inhabitants of San Francisco would go about their life in society.
The United States of America is one of the most powerful nation-states in the world today. The framers of the American Constitution spent a great deal of time and effort into making sure this power wasn’t too centralized in one aspect of the government. They created three branches of government to help maintain a checks and balance system. In this paper I will discuss these three branches, the legislative, the executive, and the judicial, for both the state and federal level.
“The Deeper Problems We Miss When We Attack ‘Gentrification’”exhibit their opinion on the positives of gentrification and the potential of “revitalization” in low-income urban communities. Badger argues that gentrification brings nothing more than further opportunities for urban communities while integrating citizens of different social classes.Furthermore , she continues to question if gentrification is in fact the monster that brings the prior expressions against gentrification where she says “If poor neighborhoods have historically suffered from dire disinvestment, how can the remedy to that evil — outside money finally flowing in — be the problem, too?”(Badger) Stating that the funds generated from sources external that are brought into these communities can’t be problematic. This concept is further elaborated in the article “Does Gentrification Harm the Poor” where Vigdoor list the potential positive enhancements gentrification can have on an urban area in America ,stating that gentrification can
This is Kotkin’s first book published in 1982. It dealt with the California’s link to the emergent economies in the Pacific
The United States is the leading economy across the globe and experienced several tribulations in the recent past following the 2008 global recession. Despite these recent challenges, there are expectations among policymakers and financial experts that the country will experience solid economic growth. Actually, financial analysts have stated that the U.S. economy will be characterized by increased consumer spending, increased investments by businesses, reduced rate of unemployment, and reduction in government cut. Some analysts have also stated that the country’s economy will strengthen in 2014 with an average of 2.7 percent or more. However, these predictions can only be understood through an analysis of the current macroeconomic situation in the United States.
Although rent control is a controversial topic and many economists have argued with its inefficient outcome, many cities in the United States such as New York City and San Francisco still hold this kind of law or ordinances in their systems. Why these big cities do not want to abolish rent control and is that rent control really does harms more than goods? Focus on rent control in San Francisco, and compared to New York City, this essay tried to find the changes and the revises of rent control.
Alexiev, Alex. “Catching up to Mexico: illegal immigration is depleting California’s human capital and ravaging it’s economy.” National Review 24 Aug. 2009: 22.
By the second half of the nineteenth century, many people rushed to California including Anglo. It can be said that California was entering an era of “Anglo hegemony”. In this paper, I intend to discuss the reason why they traveled to California, their encounters, their remarkable success as well as the role of sex and gender in helping these newcomers assume control of California.
During the late 1840's California did not show much promise or security. It had an insecure political future, its economic capabilities were severely limited and it had a population, other than Indians, of less than three thousand people. People at this time had no idea of what was to come of the sleepy state in the coming years. California would help boost the nation's economy and entice immigrants to journey to this mystical and promising land in hopes of striking it rich.
California's education system is in dire need of reform, providing adequate funding to education has been a problem for decades. The “Golden Moment” in California took place in the mid twentieth century. During the governorship of Pat Brown, a Master Plan for higher education was adopted. This plan passed in 1960, it created a three tier system and aimed at providing universal access to higher education for all Californians. It was an innovative system that brought prestige to the state and helped manage the needs of the rapidly growing state population. The growth in population was fueled by the idea that California was the land of milk and honey but this influx caused property values to rise and consequently property taxes were hiked. California voters have the ability to use the initiative process to implement policy. While this is a unique aspect that allows Californians direct control in governance, it can make it difficult for the state government to provide enough funding. Among the legislation pushed by voters has been Proposition 13, it continues to have long lasting effects that impact tax revenue and budgetary decisions.
From reading the author’s book “Ecology of Fear,” Mike Davis’ main thesis for writing this book was to make readers become aware of the underlying problems and threats which have existed or currently exist in Southern California and how these problems shape the way we live today and in the imminent future as well. Although Davis did not really provide us with any remedies for the problems facing Southern California, this book made it very clear to the readers that problems do still exist, although at times they may sound subtle in nature. Of the numerous problems which do exist in Southern California, I will discuss only a handful of the problems that Davis provided us insight to. In the following paragraphs, the main problems of Southern California that I will discuss about are suburbanization and how it made Southern California lose its natural beauty and the effects of overdevelopment, the wild fires which occur and similarities and differences the rich and poor communities faced in terms of adversity, how suburbanization brought people closer to the wildlife, and how numerous books and movies portrayed Los Angeles as the center for calamities. The culmination of all these problems clearly shows that there are many glaring weaknesses of Southern California that need to be closely examined.
In this article, the author writes about the Urban Renewal Plan and what it did to a community in Oakland, California. The West Oakland community was found in 1852 and had a diverse population living there. That article says that upper-class people would be living next door to working class people. After the World Wars that changed because lower income families started moving to the area looking for jobs. The jobs they had were created because of the war. When the war ended these people lost their jobs. At the same time, the Urban Renewal Plan was put into place. This plan set out to remove slums in urban places. This plan would relocated families, demolish houses and create low-income housing. When a family was relocated they received little
For decades, America has been the fastest growing economy country in the world, and Detroit was one of the most leading populous city in the United States. Back in 1930, Detroit was the fastest growing city, but now is the fastest shrinking city with more than 100, 000 abandoned homes (Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady). Similarly, Bay Area economy was the envy of the nation with high employment rates and GDP growth like Detroit in the 1930s, and is currently suffering from losing jobs, residents, and status. Both Detroit and the Bay Area are single resource-based industries - where Detroit is manufacturing dominated, and Bay Area is high technology dominated. However, the Bay Area will not go bankrupt and become a ghost town in fifty years, because its high diversities in the economic opportunities are attracting people to stay and work here.
California, a state located on the West Coast of the United States is the most popular state. Its the third largest state by area. California borders Oregon to the North, Nevada to the East, Arizona to the Southeast, and the Mexican States of Baja to the South. On 1850, September 9 California became the 31st state of the United States. California became the 31st state in the Union even though it hasn’t even been part of the United States for less than 2 years.
Since 1848 to the present, California has had strong periods of representing the American Dream with its egalitarian advances and times of overwhelmingly democratic positions. Also, California was once a place for economic opportunity, attracting people from all over the nation. Since 1990, however, California has witnessed a reverse migration. Once a land of hope and opportunity, California has slowly been turning into a land of despair.