Remember, California has the size and diversity of many medium-sized nations... so generalizations often don't work.
The scene at the forum wasn't really connected to the recession or California but US health care and US urban poor in general.
I'm surprised how little I notice the recession, much less the "collapse" of California. Of course, I'm in the Bay Area and I think that LA and especially the central valley were harder hit. But that is how the US generally has been economically - strong urban area but with hinter-lands that are poorer than one would imagine.
Actually Los Angeles County's unemployment rate was only .6 percent higher than Santa Clara County (12.6% vs 12%). San Francisco does a little better at 10.1% but it's still above the national average (see here: http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=usunemployment&met=u...)
In reality California's unemployment rate gets dragged up by the smaller counties in the extreme north and south. For example, Imperial County (which borders Mexico) has a 28.7% unemployment rate while Shasta County (about 40 miles or so south of Oregon) has a 15.2%
Remember, California has the size and diversity of many medium-sized nations... so generalizations often don't work.
The scene at the forum wasn't really connected to the recession or California but US health care and US urban poor in general.
I'm surprised how little I notice the recession, much less the "collapse" of California. Of course, I'm in the Bay Area and I think that LA and especially the central valley were harder hit. But that is how the US generally has been economically - strong urban area but with hinter-lands that are poorer than one would imagine.