Rigonomics:

I am not sure who first wrote “may you live in interesting times.” It is said to be a Chinese curse.

Curse or no curse, we will look back at the summer of 2009 and call these very interesting times. It will be known as the time when the American public woke up and took the reins back from the politicians.

When the economy is doing well, most people do not look at what the politicians in Sacramento and Washington are doing. Now, with one in 10 Americans out of work, those days are over.

The public has to take a large share of the blame. Californians had been acting like a spoiled child that gets whatever it wants without having to worry about paying for it.

How else do you explain a populace whose state is in a financial death spiral and votes in a $10-billion bond as a down payment on a $40-billion “bullet train”? Or legislators passing laws that allow perfectly able public employees to retire with six-figure incomes at 50 years of age?

Based on what you see at town halls across the country, those days are over.

President Obama is trying to salvage his health-care reform next week with his second speech in six months before a joint session of Congress.

In better economic times, his plan might have gotten through Congress. In this economy, it is dead on arrival.

The 86% of Americans with health insurance may not be perfectly happy with their existing health care.

But they are not willing to swap it for the plan Obama is offering.

If there is one thing Congress loves more than spending someone else’s money, it is staying in office.

The public has made it clear to their local members of Congress. If you vote for this health-care reform, start looking for another job.

Unlike previous recessions, this one may take a little longer to recover here in California than in other parts of the country.

The reason is simple: According to some analysts, Californians will have a $15-billion budget shortfall for at least the next few years. Unlike the federal government, states do not have the ability to print money. They have to balance their budgets.

The Democrats who are the state’s controlling party know only one way to fix the budget, and that is to bring in more revenue, which is another way of saying, raise taxes.

The problem they are having is that the only people they can raise taxes on are the so-called rich, who are leaving the state in droves. It is estimated that when the 2010 census is completed, California will lose one member of Congress. Texas will gain three.

It is not hard to figure out why. People go where the jobs are, and employers go to states that want them.

California has one of the highest personal income tax rates in the country. Here, a single person is considered rich and pays 9.55% income tax on their earnings more than $47,000.

Texans do not even have a personal income tax. On top of that, we have some of the highest sales taxes in the country. Residents of Los Angeles County pay 9.75% sales tax whenever they go shopping.

When companies look to expand, unless they have to be in California, they go where they are wanted.

This last month, I had a conversation with a corporate relocation consultant. His job is to find locations to expand or relocate companies around the country.

When I asked how well California competes in getting corporations to move here, he started to chuckle. He said his California corporate clients are looking to move or expand out of the state. “Only companies that have to be here are. The rest are leaving.”

While the rest of the country gets out of this recession, California will stay in it.

How long, you ask? As long as it takes for Sacramento to tighten its belt, lower tax rates, balance its budget and compete. This may be a very long time.

JIM RIGHEIMER is a Costa Mesa planning commissioner, local business owner and a father of four. He can be reached at jim@rigonomics.com.