California used to be one of America's top crude oil producers

[Daniel D. Teoli Jr.]

Press Photo of Midway-Sunset Oil Field, CA 1931

DDTJRAC

 

Kilgore, Tx 1940

DDTJRAC

I was told that CA used to produce as much oil as TX; but regulations eventually killed a lot of that production. Whether it is true or not, I don't know. But it is amazing the amounts of wells CA had back in the day.

<><><><>

Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Archival Collection
Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Small Gauge Film Archive
Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Advertising Archive
Daniel D. Teoli Jr. VHS Video Archive
Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Popular Culture Archive
Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Audio Archive
Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Social Documentary Photography

[Karim D. Ghantous]

I think that California needs to diversify its industry. It has two: Silicon Valley and Hollywood. Great industries, and huge ones, but it's a shame that oil isn't part of that. Silicon Valley could move to anywhere, including Canada. Hollywood technically could, but it won't be practical. 

[Daniel D. Teoli Jr.]

Yes, that is true. The other industry is taxation. I had heard they were discussing putting an exit tax in force to tax people for years after they move out of CA. Maybe NY too...not sure. If they can ever get rid of Prop 13 that will be a big financial boom to the compulsive spenders. Tourism is another big industry. I wonder how much the move to Georgia affected Hollywood.

[Tyler Purcell]

4 hours ago, Daniel D. Teoli Jr. said:

Yes, that is true. The other industry is taxation. I had heard they were discussing putting an exit tax in force to tax people for years after they move out of CA. Maybe NY too...not sure. If they can ever get rid of Prop 13 that will be a big financial boom to the compulsive spenders. Tourism is another big industry. I wonder how much the move to Georgia affected Hollywood.

The problem is that billionaires by up huge swaths of land and never use it. If you inhabit land, there is no exit tax. If you don't in habit the land, then you need to in habit it or get the F out. I see abandoned houses everywhere in CA, there are at least three in my neighborhood. We use to hike a lot in the Santa Monica mountains and there are huge mansions up there, which lay dormant, so maybe one day they can sell or put one of their family members in. 

The big problem with CA is actually the pensions. The police, fire and government worker pensions, which started in the 1950's, have literally destroyed California financially. People are living way longer than they ever have and the pensions keep adding up. So 1/3rd of all tax money going to the state, is going directly to pensions. Which means, they only have 2/3rds of the tax money to do anything within the state, which is partially why nothing gets done. 

The other big problem with CA is poor management of said money. They blow it on the dumbest of projects, many of which take decades to complete and when done, the entire state has radically changed, so whatever they did, would be useless. They're building this high speed rail for instance, something nobody will ever use. They have been building affordable housing, but it's a lottery system and if you don't get in early, you don't get it. Most of the people who need it, aren't sitting on a website refreshing constantly to apply. California is also anti-business, you should be "privileged" to have your business here in their mind, which in my mind is wrong. I get why they think that, but it's not 1990 anymore. Many of the great jobs are leaving state for shit stains like Texas and Florida because they need to diversify. The film industry has already done that, you no longer need to shoot in CA and crew are moving anywhere they want near an airport and simply fly to the shows. It costs a tiny bit more money, but it's not the end of the world for a big project. 

In the end, if CA lowered fuel taxes, if they incentivize small businesses with tax breaks, they could easily rebuild. But at this point, I don't see them ever doing that. 

[Samuel Berger]

5 hours ago, Tyler Purcell said:

Many of the great jobs are leaving state for (expletive deleted) stains like Texas and Florida because they need to diversify. The film industry has already done that, you no longer need to shoot in CA and crew are moving anywhere they want near an airport and simply fly to the shows.

This is true. I had many industry friends and acquaintances move to Albuquerque and Atlanta. It hasn't been the source of so many jobs as they had in LA but they're working. Although I do know one actress who came here and she was SAG. The issue was, most leads are still cast in LA, so they were casting leads off of auditions that never even made it out here to local hires. Unfortunately, the cost of living in LA skyrocketed like crazy, and so she became economically trapped. I had another friend who moved to Albuquerque, same thing. He bought a house in Albuquerque, then discovered no leads were being cast over there. Sold his home and bought another in Valencia.