As California goes, so goes the nation

Economics columnist Robert J. Samuelson discusses the financial woes of the great state of California, and then arrives at a sobering conclusion:

There is also a bigger story with national implications. California has reached a tipping point. Its government made more promises than its economy can easily support. For years, state leaders papered over the contradiction with loans and modest changes. By overwhelming these expedients, the recession triggered an inevitable reckoning.

Here’s the national lesson. There’s a collision between high and rising demands for government services and the capacity of the economy to produce the income and tax revenue to pay for those demands. That’s true of California . . . . It’s also true of the nation.