Golden State

"In 1949, Carey McWilliams, the state’s greatest journalist, called California “the great exception” among states: no textbook or precedent existed to explain its monstrous growth, its powerful labor movement, its superb education system, or its abundance-creating, super-exploitative farm system." - Nikil Saval, "Golden State"

STTA. It really was not all that long ago when California seemed to represent the best of our country's future--the land of milk and honey, figuratively speaking, we were all heading. Now, as Saval's article suggests, it may represent our future in another, less pleasant way: the financial decay and decline in the quality of life gripping the country as a whole. Your thoughts: Is it really that bad?