Both my wife and I were born in California during World War 2. We both grew up in Los Angeles County. While working on a Master's Degree in Physics, I received a draft notice to report to the Army within 3 weeks for Viet-Nam. I went to my local Air-Force recruiter who asked if I would like to in our Air Force this week or next [week]. I chose to report in 2 weeks. After basic training I married my wife and we ended up at Griffiss AFB in Rome, New York. I was assigned to the Rome Air Development Center's Digital Communications Experimental Facility in 1968 testing modems for coast to coast digital communications. My office had e-mail int 1973. There were 13 original users. Next tour in 1973 was at NSA testing algarithms for digitized voice.
My wife, three children and I moved to Carlsbad, California in 1977, bought the least expensive house I could find, a smll 4 bedroom house on a sixth of an acre. It was one of two houses not yet sold. A forth child was born in 1983. I then worked for several companies as a software engineer until I was laid off in 1999. As a software engineer you are hired for a specific task. You leave when when done. I used up a good part of my savings while waiting to qualify for Social Secdurity. I did spend several years doing subsitute teaching in local high and jr. high schools to bring in some income. Then I applied early for Social Security. California is a very expensive State to live in. Every year the property tax increased a minimum of 2%. That increase also applies to businesses which have accordingly raised the cost of goods and services. If I had a full time minimum wage job, it would pay almost twice as what as I get from Social Security. As a result, we had to stop all donations except tithe and a few other non-profit organizations. Every week I get a lot of mail and e-mail requesting money. Many organizations will now not accept small donations. Those get shredded or deleted. Sorry. But we just do not have the money and we will NOT borrow from a bank because we would have a very hard time trying to repay a loan without an increase in Social Security.
With the rising prices of electrical energy, in November of 2013 we paid for a 20 year lease from Solar City for a system. I asked for their 4.4 kW inverter several times but was given a inverter with a maximum rating of 3.6 kW to handel 15 solar cell guaranteed to output 250W each for a total of 3.75 kW for the array but actually would output 4.0 kW on a bright Summer's day. For the next 6 years it provided most of the energy we needed. But in Novemer 2019 we had a major rainstorm and the system totally failed. We called Solar City / Tesla told them we needed them to fix their system on our house. Up through February 2020 they kept telling us our new solar panels were not in. I asked for the specs on the panels and they did not know the specs. They did find some old panels guarateed to output 270 W each that were installed at the end of March. But the system still did not work. I aked for the 4.8 kW inverter but they gave me the inverter to limit output to 3840 W which was installed in mid April. To be "safe" only 14 panels were connected to the inverter. I do not know what the output is because that information is now given to a "cell phone app" and I do not have a cell phone. [An undeeded expense.] I am hopping it will cover most of the energy that I use.
California spends a LOT of money on things that DO NOT WORK. A high speed rail is not possible anywhere near the Pacific Coast because the terrain is mountainous. High Speed Rail require land that is almost flat and straight. California's Central Valley is flat and straight, but who lives there? I think they did build a high speed rail between a prison and a truck stop! What a waste of money.
Another waste of money is
Global Warming because we are actually in a period of Climate Change which follows the warming and cooling of our Sun which is not controlled by any corporation. Neither is the distance between Earth and Sun.
Another huge cost is that of Invasion. Many are invited to come for the "free stuff" and then to vote Democratic. My oldest son was promised by MediCal to cure his cancer, but he was in a hospital bed for over three months while the bed next to him was given to those down South [of the border]. While in the Hospital his cancer went from stage 1 to stage 4 and matastisized. He was then sent home to die. RIP John. Why does California give priority to the undocumented and ignore residents? [For the promised Democratic Vote.]
This is my opinion from the literature I have read and personal experiance. Because of all the mandetory increased expenses, I can no long afford donations. Sorry. Despite many donations in the last 75 years I have never been able to talk to my elected Representative or any other politician.
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