Overlooking the obvious

Share: Share on Facebook submit to reddit StumbleUpon Toolbar

Working in California's Capitol, one hears a great deal of overblown political rhetoric about what makes the state good ...
-- Innovation
-- The California Dream
-- Diversity
-- A can-do spirit

... and what allegedly makes it bad ..
-- Too many taxes.
-- Too much regulation.
-- Illegal immigration.

It turns out that when you ask ordinary Californians what makes their state good or bad, however, the responses don't match the rhetoric.

In its recent online survey of more than 1,000 representative state residents, the reform group California Forward asked respondents to type into a box whatever came into their heads on those questions. It then ran the data through a word-counter and produced a chart with all the words that had the most mentions. The more mentions, the bigger the word.

The word Californians most used to say what is good about their state: WEATHER.

And the top word among the bad: TRAFFIC.

A couple possible conclusions: The state economy is not going to fall completely apart as long as the sun keeps shining here and the snow keeps falling almost everywhere else. And, it's not going to take off until somebody figures out how to eliminate freeway gridlock.

No TrackBacks

TrackBack URL: http://blogs.venturacountystar.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/43208

1 Comments

Basically opt to say your site is just as unexpected. The quality as part of your posting is simply excellent and i also can expect you may be a guru within this subject. Okay together with your authorization ok, i'll seize the Feed supply to help keep current with long run write-up. Thank you and you will carry on a gratifying operate.

Leave a comment

95 percent accurate
Over the last 25 presidential elections, Ventura County voters have backed the winner 24 times, or over 95 percent of the time. It is one of only a handful of counties in the nation that has been such a predictable bellwether.
about Timm Herdt
Timm Herdt
The Ventura County Star's Sacramento Bureau Chief Timm Herdt on state issues and politics from Sacramento to Ventura County. He can be contacted at therdt@vcstar.com
Links
  • Nanette Vachula: Basically opt to say your site is just as unexpected. read more