Goin' to California

I just finished a road trip, taking my parents and my parents' aging dogs from Phoenix, Arizona back home to the San Francisco Bay Area. All of us did surprisingly well, finishing the trip in 13 and a half hours, despite the constant bathroom breaks of the passengers, median age around 80. (I was the youngest by far. The toothless dogs were in their 90s, dog years.) As the car sped through the Mojave desert and up into the West's agricultural heartland we listened to junky hits of the 70s, then better quality stuff, Johnny Cash and Vince Gill, surviving off my mom's egg and tuna and egg and olive sandwiches on rye bread. My mom and I split the driving. This gave me some time to compare the infrastructure of the two states. I noticed a few key differences.

• The interstates (10 and 5) were in good repair in both states, but Arizona's roads were newly paved and in flawless condition.
• Traffic ran smoothly going through the huge freeway into Phoenix. Traffic backed up going through the huge freeway into Los Angeles. 
• Almost all of the California rest stops were closed. All of the Arizona rest stops were open.
• Gasoline is much (15%) cheaper in Arizona. 
• I ran across a lot more roadway cleaned by prisoners in California. To be fair, our trip crossed much more of California than Arizona. But it seemed like we passed a penitentiary every few hours. This was perfect backdrop to the Johnny Cash. (Link here.)

Without looking at the budgetary numbers, I would take a guess that Arizona is in much better financial shape than California. The evidence from my trip is compelling. The New York Times magazine says, "Italy, like California, has let bad governance squander great natural resources." California has been more successful in banning Fois Gras than getting its budget together. The NYT seems to be correct.