PRESTOPUNDIT -- "It's a team sport, baby!"

27% of those living in California were not born in America. Of course, these percentages do not include the American born children of the foreign born. My understanding is that something like 1/2 of all school kids in California are not the children of American born residents. Here is the U.S. Census Bureau press release.

Make no mistake, California is truly ground zero of America's foreign born population explosion -- of all foreign born people living in the U.S., a full 28% live in California.

More census data. 21% of Californians over the age of 24 don't have a high school degree. 41% of Californians speak a language other than English. Remarkably, with so many non-American born residents without an education living in California, only 13% of the population is officially categorized by the government as living in poverty. (And as study after study shows, most of those folks have TVs, VCRs, microwaves, air conditioning, etc. etc. -- luxuries for most of those living in the countries where so many of those in poverty are from).

And this -- 27% of those residing in California speak Spanish in the home.

Finally, one more -- but first consider the fact that the additional income from a working spouse's paycheck is usually just enough to cover the increase in tax on working families which have been imposed since the days of the single earner families of the 1950s. Ok, here's the stat. 57% of children under the age of six in California are parented by parents who both work. And this is below the nation average.

Posted by Greg Ransom