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NEWS > U.S.A. > GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER CONSIDERING CLOSING CALIFORNIA BORDERS
GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER CONSIDERING CLOSING CALIFORNIA BORDERS
February 12 2009
Sacramento, CA – The disastrous collapse of the economy has had many unforeseen consequences and many more are expected as things continue to slide. Of all the 50 states though, none have been hit as hard as California. The Golden State, which also ranks as the world’s fifth largest economy, has been long plagued by economic trouble. The credit crunch and the resulting economic collapse has only worsened the state’s ability to pull itself from the mire it finds itself fighting.
With a deficit approaching $42 billion the state has had to cut salaries, close after school programs, and lay off thousands of employees. As summer approaches, people across the state are readying themselves for the inevitable rolling blackouts that have been so common over the last few years. The dire state of the state has prompted Governor Schwarzenegger to consider even more drastic action than he and his administration have already enacted, including possibly shutting down the state to tourists and all but essential personnel.
“Shutting down the borders may seem counterintuitive but the reality is the majority of people likely to cross the border won’t be spending in line with the cost it takes to support them. Things like emergency services and increased demand on already precious resources such as water and electricity likely
won’t be outweighed by the limited amount of money they are spending,” said Scrape TV Business analyst Ken Green. “It’s simple business. If you have no customers it’s better to close early than hang around hoping that someone will come in. Come summer time the entire state is going to be in trouble and it really doesn’t make economic sense to keep the borders open.”
To date no US state has closed its borders due to economic turmoil. States routinely kept closed borders during the civil war, but the realities of border closings was much different then.
“Of course they will also have to spend money on border enforcement and other related costs and they will have to balance that against the potential take from tourism,” continued Green. “It seems an odd proposition to completely shut down a state but it might be necessary to save everyone from complete financial collapse.”
One of the largest tourist attractions in California is of course DisneyLand which would likely to be the most devastated by the potential
border closing. This was of course obliquely presaged in the cult classic ‘National
Lampoon’s Vacation’ in which after breaking into the fictional Wally World, Clark
Griswold (Chevy Chase) defended his actions to Roy Wally by asking how disappointed his children would be if they got to Florida and it was closed. Wally’s response was “They don’t close Florida.”
“Vacation was and still is a tremendously entertaining movie but I don’t think anyone could have seen that it would have been an instrument of almost psychic prescience. If this does indeed come to pass it may spark a resurrection in Chevy Chase’s career. Like most Americans he could probably use the work,” said Scrape TV Entertainment analyst Tracey Temple. “Whether or not that’s a good thing or not is up for debate. One thing it may do is provoke a fresh look at the National Lampoon films of the 1980’s and see whether or not they contain any more nuggets of future prediction. Is there more depth to Bluto than we previously thought?”
National Lampoon, once a major satire publication spun out into filmmaking in the 1980’s starting with ‘Animal House’ starring John Belushi and had great success with the series of ‘Vacation’ movies. It should be noted that National Lampoon is an advertising partner with Scrape TV.
“The quality of their movies has more or less disappeared in recent years and I doubt anyone will ever be looking at ‘Van Wilder’ or ‘Loaded Weapon’ for insight into the future but the future moves in strange ways,” continued Temple. “Of course resurgent interest in Chevy Chase movies isn’t going to do anything to help California’s economy unless he suddenly 
becomes a bankable star again and that is very unlikely. Frankly, the shutdown might even keep him out of the state and as I understand it he has been a resident there for decades. It might be a good way for them to get rid of some of the riff raff.”
We attempted to contact Governor Schwarzenegger’s office for comment but the phones had been turned off. We attempted to contact representatives for Chevy Chase but could find no one admitting to working for him.
Mike Michaels, American Correspondent
NEWS > U.S.A. > GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER CONSIDERING CLOSING CALIFORNIA BORDERS
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