[ExI] End of time?

[Tom Nowell]

Spike wrote:" Perhaps you have heard of our state's 19 billion dollar deficit?  And that the budget still hasn't passed, and is over two months overdue?  And that they are not even making much progress?  

 What do we do now, coach?"

Time to engage my armchair coaching mode -

Tom's four solutions to California's deficit! (in ascending order of workability)

1) Slash EVERYTHING and attempt a minarchist's dream inside of twelve months! Redesign education so as to avoid classroom time and do all their work in a computer or in student-led groups! Close all state-subsidised hospitals! Who needs road maintenance - make every road support itself by tolls!
 Unlikely to work, as general redesign of a government's support of things usually requires years of planning and many unfortunate casualties along the way. Still, Canada managed some fairly vicious cuts in the 90s and survived. Also, unlikely to pass the legislative bodies without serious arm-twisting (which is better deployed on plan 4)

2) Play a game of bankruptcy chicken with the Federal government. Threaten to declare bankruptcy, and see if either the Fed weakens and bails you out, or alternatively go through with it and have an interesting social experiment in what happens in the worst case scenario for a US state. Hey, the Weimar republic eventually recovered following their hyperinflation crisis and subsequent crash.

3) Offer to sell land back to mexico - hey, it was Mexico's until the mid-19th century, so the federal government shouldn't complain. In between Carlos Slim and the border gangs there's enough money available to fetch a good price. If you get really desperate, suggest 99 year leases to Russia or China.

4) Milk Uncle Sam the traditional way. California is full of hackers, paparazzo journalists and private investigators right? (Well, that's the way the media portrays it to the rest of the world.) Deploy them en masse to dig up the dirt on every member of the House Ways and Means committee. These bozos influence ludicrous pork-barrel spending every year, so if they decide to pass the "Upgrading California's Infrastructure" measures which spends zillions on employing every unemployed person in Cali to build roads, bridges, etc. no-one will suspect a thing. The resulting employment boom will kickstart California's economy.
 In fact, why stop there? Why not persuade enough lawmakers to pass the "NASA appropriations (advancing America)" Bill which decides to advance US technology by throwing extra billions at Lockheed and its satellite-building contractors. It may not be the best spend of US taxpayers money, but if it gets highly experienced ex-satellite engineers back on the payroll for a couple of years I for one would say it is well worth the money.

Tom