California is largely relying on Hollywood and Silcoln Valley's "Culture of Collaboration."

That is, that said groups do better around a lot of people like them... and there is way more of them in Cali then anywhere else.

Well and the weather is nice.

I don't understand why people are baggin on California for being rated badly by business executives.  When I look at connections like the one above I wonder if people understand the whole picture, or just what is being constantly repeated (like a broken record) by the corporate news.

I don't know if you all remember the housing boom/bust. Many jobs were lost in home construction. Before the bust, California had between a 5 - 6 % unemployment from years 2004-2006 which was very similar to Texas. (http://www.deptofnumbers.com/unemployment/california/) The only difference is that California was coming from a bad resession having invested poorly in tech stocks in the last tech boom/bust. Housing was surgin up and California road on the next new bubble. I don't know how much Texas was involved in the housing boom, but I guarrantee that it was not as bad as in California. Houses that originally cost 130,000 dollars where going for almost $400,000 here. It was crazy and people were being fed lies that house prices were never going to come down; however, anyone who has studied a bit of economics could tell you that this type of mentality is total BS. If you don't believe me just look at the current gold/commodity bubble we are on now.

Every state had a housing bubble. Every state. Every other state has recovered much quicker than California because their underlying economies were fundementally better. Yes, the housing buble did effect the state immensely, but it effected my state, Ohio, tremendously too. The difference is in how each state responded. California has done nothing to fix its economy.

This "trickle down effect" everyone likes to talk about does make sense in your connection. How does unemployment trickle down from the top?  Are you talking about education wise? The unemployment numbers Bachelor/Masters/Doctor degrees is way lower than those without a college degree. The only way I can see this making sense is if the the field is no longer in demand, but a college degree still holds more weight then a diploma.

Unemployment trickles down if there are jobs that require degrees. If people cannot generate capital to start new ventures, then those degrees are absolutely worthless. California has one of the more educated populations in America, yet their unemployment is horrendous. Why? They discourage capital formation which is the engine of growth.

Business left because of a bad economy: This could be true, but I don't see why a business would invest in relocation just to go out of state. There are larger incentives to outsource internationally if they really want to pack up and move. It is not California's fault if other states want to lover their taxes and environmental restrictions to attract California businesses. Thats competition, something I believe is fair; however, I wonder how much money those states will loose and how much enviromental damage they will incur in the long run. They will have to respond to their residents eventurally. It is just a hidden cost that will eventually surface.

Have you ever done business with California.......As a business?

I will not argue that job losses lead to less state revenue; I believe even a hobbo understands that logic. The part about the state getting into larger debt, well that is still going on now, but not as rampant as when Arnold was in office. He wasn't a bad man, the problem was that he lost the respect of his party and couldn't get them in line to compromise, so the state had to keep borrowing. Borrowing is worse than taxing actually, but many people in California have a belief that they should not have to pay for social services they want/need/like.

The problem is that the debts that California has are so massive, they are very unlikely to get out of the hole due to anything but creating many, many, jobs and increasing GDP significantly to generate more tax revenues. They are doing the exact opposite of that by levying new taxes to discourage job creation and growth. Why is it that my state balanced its budget and reduced unemployment while CA continues to pile up billions upon billions in debt and unfunded liabilities.

There are many problems in California, but I believe they can be fixed. The unemployment was not primarily caused by businesses leaving the state. It was caused by the deacrease in demand of housing. That is why Nevada, California, and Florida have higher unemployment rates then that national average. These states were riding the housing boom which created a lot of job at the time. When the bubble contracted, the jobs dissappiered; however, the debt many of those people made did not dissapear (subprime loans). Many business could not borrow because banks were not giving out loans; The weaker ones went out of business, while the stronger ones survived, but they had to cut back heavily. This is what bubbles create, and greed with lack of regulation are prime ingridiants.

And yet the states with less regulations have invariably better employment situations..

I can go on and on about this topic, but I'll stop here. Just remember that California is not in such deep sh!t. They can get out of this because it is still a desirable place to live. Some people may not be able to afford it, while others have had to move back to their relatitives. The point is that while Texas may have a better unemployment than California for now, I can go by without using air condition in my car and house all year long (j/k). Unemployment is a cyclical number, it drops, rises, and drops again. Laying the fault on liberals is a weird thing to do when the conservative adminstration that was suppost to be regulating these subprime loans fell asleep at the wheel, lost the power it once had, and is now bombarding people with fear once again to get you to vote for them. Being pro-business does not = a Patriot. Think about this... Would a business execuative choose country over his own interest, the companies, or its share holders? If you think they would, then the brain washing machina has done a great job on you all.

Let me tell you a story. Its a story about the Game Developers' Conference. Its based out of San Francisco, one of the hearts of California.

Do you know what the cost to do business is for the conference in California? Its prohibitively expensive due to how CA operates. For example, I was a speaker at GDC this past year. Because of it, I was entitled to certain privledges, including "free" food. By free, I mean that I did not have to pay for it, but GDC did. Here's the thing: Due to the regulatory issues inside of SF, GDC cannot provide meals of their choice, they must be brokered by their food unions.

The result? My meals cost GDC about $200 USD. That $200 UDS paid for the following: a ham or turkey sandwich, a pasta salad, a bag of chips, and a soda pop of my choice. $200 for that, because of the regulatory atmosphere inside of San Francisco. Comparatively, I bought the same meal at a 7/11 down the street for $5.

Additionally, go look at new studio formations in the game industry. They aren't forming in California anymore. People are slowly starting to wise up that unless you're Google and can exploit every loophole, its horrible for business. Its not businessman's greed, but the simple fact that you can't make a profit hiring people under thier codes as opposed to any other state in America. Why go and hire in CA when you could do it in Oregon for 10, 20, or even 30% less costs that don't have a thing to do with actually paying your employees? After all, if businesses only cared about the bottom line, then they should pay their employees less. But the reality is that they can't because many high-tech jobs are very mobile and can re-located as needed, thus the huge exodus from California. Ask any businessman where they're going to go form a business. They will never, ever, say California. Its not because they're greedy, but because they're not stupid.