I have lived in California nearly all my life except for the few years I left to attend college and also when I left to serve two years on a LDS Church Mission. I believe that the people of California are essentially good people who want to do the right things and to help their fellowmen. But on the other hand, as I see how they vote on important issues and completely reject common economic sense, I must admit that they may have completely Lost Their Minds!
Consider a few of the 725 new laws that Californians' elected leaders voted to go into effect in 2011:
AB119 - This law prevents insurance companies from charging different rates for men and women for identical coverage.
In this law you can plainly see Californians' desire for fairness. They want to treat people equally. However, since the dawn of time, insurance companies have gathered statistics that show that women have fewer accidents than men. Thus the rates for men, especially young men, have been higher. The insurance companies make their living off statistics and base their rates on them. Now that the government has created this new law, the insurance industry must abandon statistics and decide whether to increase the rates for women, or to reduce the coverage for men. Either way, the public are losers.
SB782 - This law prevents landlords from evicting tenants who are victims of domestic abuse or stalking.
Here again, you can see the goodness and the kindness of Californians and their desire to help those in need. But now consider what happens to the poor landlord who rents to a victim of domestic abuse. This woman can now refuse to pay rent and may stay in the property forever. And believe me, this will certainly happen in California. I had a friend who rented an apartment to a woman who never paid rent after she moved into the apartment. When my friend approached her about paying him, she said she had no intention of paying him rent and that she would move out only if he paid HER $4000. She said she had the "right" to be evicted and that she would be willing to give up that right for $4000. The Ventura County DA upheld her claim and my friend finally was able to get her to leave for a reduced amount of $2500. Such a deal!? If only she had the added benefit of being a victim of domestic abuse. After all, my friend did harass her when he was trying to get her to pay her rent. The woman even hired a lawyer to file a complaint against my friend for harassment. She could live there forever under SB782.
AB1871 - This new law allows people to lease out their unused cars without the need to purchase additional insurance.
This law is clearly the result of lawmakers smoking marijuana. What is the insurance company going to do now when they receive a claim from a car owner who was leasing out his car to someone who had recently lost their auto insurance due to too many accidents and bad driving convictions? They will have to pay and then they will increase all of our rates to pay for Californians' stupidity for such a stupid law.
AB537 - This new law will make food stamps an acceptable form of payment at farmers markets through the EBT process.
It is bad enough that welfare recipients in California use their food stamp debit cards to pay for Las Vegas gambling, cruise ships, and Hawaiian Vacations, but now they can use their food stamps to pay the added cost to buy their food at farmers markets. I know a woman who has a pet rabbit and a pet turtle and a house full of cats. They all are like a family and they all run free in the house. The wood floor is rotted out from pet urine, and the furniture is matted with fur and ?????. She mentioned to me the other day that she only buys her pets the good fruits and vegetables at farmers markets. None of that regular produce from Albertsons or Krogers or Ralphs like the rest of us eat. And this woman is on state welfare, too. Now things just got easier for her. She can use her ATM card to buy pet food.
SB1449 and AB97 - These two new laws have to be mentioned together. The first makes it only an "infraction" to possess up to one ounce of marijuana where the second new law absolutely bans the use of trans-fats in food facilities.
The goodness of Californians really shines in these two new laws. They want to allow the use of marijuana for people with cancer and they also want to make sure that people are eating good and healthy food. What more could people of California do to show their love for humanity? But when you put them together, you see how stupid they are, especially in light of California's stringent anti-smoking laws. How can you forbid people from eating trans-fats in delicious fried foods like French Fries and Chicken McNuggets and forbid them from smoking cigarettes but allow them to smoke marijuana. Let me get this straight? It is okay to smoke marijuana while driving a car but not to eat French Fries. Does that make any sense to you? And heaven forbid that a company like McDonalds sell a Happy Meal that offers children a toy along with their trans-fat meal.
AB715 - Requires that all new California buildings be energy efficient.
On the surface the law sounds harmless. But when you understand what is meant by "energy efficient" and the cost of implementing the law, it scares you right out of the state. We already have laws on the books that allow the government to regulate the air temperature inside our homes, via remotely controlled thermostats. We already have laws that dictate that California homes be built with thermal insulation inside walls and ceilings. They regulate how much water you can use to water your yard and when you can water your lawns. They control the efficiency of your household appliances and now forbid you to have a gas or wood burning fireplace. There are no more campfires, no more Tiki torches and they may even make it illegal to light a wooden match.
There are plenty more where those came from, too. So if you are thinking of moving to California or starting a business here........THINK AGAIN!
You can check out some of the other new laws on the following link:
