Considering that although I live in Florida (not CA, obviously) the whole idea of a state holding their citizen's tax refunds hostage p*sses me off to no end, I propose this as CA's new slogan (and NO offense is meant to CA citizens!):
"Welcome to California .... can you spare some change?"
"Welcome to California .... can you spare some change?"
We could always give California and Texas back to the people we stole them from, then it would no longer be our problem 
@MidnightVoice wrote:
We could always give California and Texas back to the people we stole them from, then it would no longer be our problem
Would the Native Americans or the Mexicans (depending which theft you mean) be willing to take them back in their current condition?
During the last major banking collapse, I recall somebody proposing for a slogan on Texas license plates "bank failure State." Back then we didn't have national banks, because interstate banking was restricted by law, and Texas led the nation in failed banks/S&Ls.
@MidnightVoice wrote:
We could always give California and Texas back to the people we stole them from, then it would no longer be our problem
HEY NOW!!! what did texas do to you!
TheNewWorldMan wrote:
What we're seeing is the beginning of the end of the United States of America as we know it, as an industrial superpower. It's going to fail, one state, one industry, one system at a time, until the effects of failures in critical areas can no longer be staved off and a cascading series of failures takes the whole thing down. Whether the United States will re-organize at a much lower energy and complexity level, or break apart, remains to be seen.
I think you underestimate our fellow Americans.
Similar doomsaying has gone on around the time of the Great Depression, the Cold War, the gas crisis in the 70's and past recessions, as well as after 9/11, and I'm sure at other stages as well.
We're still here and always will be, and not as paranoid, anarchic savages living off the land in a fractured state.
Yep - we've been on an almighty spending/living beyond our means bender for quite a while, and now that we've had a wake-up call, we're dealing with the hangover and it's going to be pretty painful for a while as we make some long-needed adjustments at all levels, but at worst I see us reverting to habits and a standard of living perhaps like that of my middle-class family in the 60's and 70's and even into the 80's, after things have sorted out.
Back then, living on a budget was necessary, economizing where possible was necessary, luxuries and big-ticket necessities were things for which we saved up over the long term rather than buying on credit (except cars and the house, but even those were done with as big a down-payment as possible).
Food-stretching recipes, clipping coupons, comparison-shopping and good planning to make the most use of leftovers and inexpensive ingredients was 'normal' - steak a very occasional treat, along with dining out. Heck, even Mickey D's was considered a luxury by my very sensible Midwestern parents! Mom always had a vegetable garden and did a lot of canning in the summer and early autumn. Rather than ordering out pizza, we bought a ready-made crust, pizza sauce and a brick of mozzarella cheese at the grocery store and made our own - turned out to be a lot tastier than order-out pizza and a heckuva lot cheaper.
Families in the neighborhood and at church swapped gently used clothes around among themselves - my wardrobe growing up was as much my sister's and older neighbor kids' hand-me-downs as it was new stuff.
Family vacations were rare when I was really little but gradually built up to a routine of twice a year - summers at a ranch out west and Christmas at my grandparents' in the Southwest. These were paid for via saving done in the months prior, not credit cards, and they were the classic load-up-the-station-wagon-and-drive-for-two-days approach. This was 'normal' - we didn't feel 'deprived' or 'poor'.
With regard to fuel/energy issues, yeah, we're behind on that in this country and need to get our backsides in gear, but procrastinators though we are, I do think we'll get our collective act together on that and keep our society from imploding and descending into chaos simply due to the running-out of fossil fuels. Too many folks around the world are already working too hard on alternatives, and necessity definitely is the mother of invention.
We'll find a way, are already finding ways on an individual level. A lot of the stuff I mentioned above is being rediscovered and implemented by people all over the country as they adjust to tighter budget and credit restraints. My bicycling everywhere is no longer looked at nearly as much as an eccentric oddity as it was even a year ago. People are trading in their cars for bikes, motorcycles, mass transit, motor scooters, walking, carpooling, etc. Clipping coupons and trying to grow your own veggies are becoming fashionable again, even in cities, as folks join community gardens or do container growing in their own yards or even on balconies. MPG is becoming a high-priority criterion for car buyers again and the ludicrously gas-guzzling behemoths going out of fashion.
We're tough, resourceful and resilient, and in my lifetime at least, I have seen tough times bring out the best in this country far more often than I have seen it bring out the worst, and I believe that will continue to be the case.
As for the CA slogan contest that was the original topic of this thread, "Prepay Only" comes to mind, right now. 