George Rebane
As we have noted for some years, California’s progressives now ensconced in Democrat super-majorities are continuing policies that are harmful to the economic health of those they claim to help, and whom they regularly bamboozle with their election year rhetoric. Those folks are not all that bright since they keep voting for the same political shills year after year. In recent times the pain has gotten so bad that there has developed an exodus of these middle class and poorer people headed for places where they can find work and afford to live. The state’s lamestream, of course, keeps a lid on such news, but more journalistic national and international newspapers like the WSJ and The Economist are keeping a close eye on California.
The Great Depression saw an influx of 1.3M from parts east like the Dust Bowl states. But decades of Democrat control have now reversed the direction for the less well heeled – a net 3.4M have moved out over the last twenty years during which things have gone from bad to worse for all but the upper quintile of Californians. Yes, the wealthier get taxed more, but to the real wealthy it really makes no never mind. They have ways to avoid the pain, and therefore still continue to come and land on/near a California beach somewhere. It has to do with esoteria like monetary utility (which I’ll talk about in the future).
The exodus of the little educated, low and mid-income earners (less than $80K/yr) come mostly from jobs like agriculture, construction, manufacturing, and hospitality. California’s green revolution, much promoted by the unions and progressives, has been an out-and-out fraudulent bust as predicted here and elsewhere. Its added regulatory and cost burdens have caused the great business exodus from the state that confirms the decisions of the workers to migrate. An added load that we all bear but hits the poorest the hardest is California’s sky high sales tax the true impact of which is known to very few (I explained it in detail here).
Progressive policies have priced half the state’s people out of the housing market by increasing costs and decreasing the supply of homes due to zoning, environmental, energy, and God knows what other regulations that suck money out the consumers’ pockets. The state’s Democrats seem to be satisfied with the state of things though. Why? Well, it’s all about where the taxes come from – them that’s leavin’ weren’t the ones that were payin’. As long as the rich keep paying, revenues will keep coming in – mind you, not at levels needed to balance budgets, but then that’s why God invented government borrowing. And again it comes down to individuals’ monetary utility.
Best I can tell, the progressive solution goes back to the Bolshevik Revolution. You just climb into one of those recently purchased FEMA or DHS MRAPs (more here), drive it up to their fine mansions and palaces, and simply take their stuff for redistribution. Everybody knows that they don’t need all that wealth, and dammit, we do. One leftwing reader recently provided a link to a little propaganda video that should get us all into the town square with torches and pitchforks. Isn’t what they have a part of what was supposed to go to us? Now it’s time to get it back, it’s time to get a little social justice going here. Meanwhile, the exodus continues.
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