XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.politics.democrats, sac.politics   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns   
   From: boinked@easynews.com   
      
   It takes a kind of malignant genius to destroy California, but the state’s   
   ruling elites are well on their way to assure its decline. If the downward   
   spiral continues, it will stand as a testament to the insane variety of   
   progressive policies that have driven middle and working class people, as   
   well as numerous companies, out of the state.   
      
   No place on earth came into this century with more going for it than   
   California. It is a naturally beautiful state, home to some of the world’s   
   mildest climates, enormously fertile both in its land and its people. It   
   has long been the epicenter of technology, entertainment and space   
   exploration: the last great Western dominated industries.   
      
   Yet today California suffers among the US’ highest rates of unemployment,   
   the highest percent living  poverty and massive  net outmigration. The   
   causes here are manifold, but they start with climate policy. Ever since   
   Jerry Brown returned to office in 2011, the state has made climate policy   
   not just a priority, but an obsession. Virtually every major state   
   initiative from housing and energy to economic growth hinges around   
   climate catastrophism and the need for California to lead the battle to   
   stop it.   
      
   These climate-centric policies are no winner for most Californians.   
   Indeed, as the state ratcheted up its regulations, the effect has   
   disproportionately hurt working class and ethnic minority families   
   (roughly 40 per cent of the state’s population is Latino). The highest   
   energy prices in continental US and draconian regulations have reduced   
   potential employment in key blue-collar industries such as logistics,   
   manufacturing, and home construction.   
      
   The impact of California’s regulatory regime also extends to the middle   
   class, who pay among the country’s highest taxes, and groan under the   
   nation’s most prolific series of regulations. By slowing and even stopping   
   new housing growth in the less expensive periphery, California has become   
   the state home to seven of the nation’s ten least-affordable housing   
   markets.   
      
   Perhaps the biggest blow to the middle class has come in terms of jobs. A   
   Hoover Institution report released last year observed that in 2020   
   California had only one-seventh the number of company-initiated capital   
   projects than did the leading state, Texas. Additionally, from 2018 to   
   2021, 352 companies headquartered in California moved their headquarters   
   out.   
      
   To be sure, the presence of four of the highest-valued tech firms – Meta,   
   Google, Apple, and Nvidia – is likely to create enormous wealth for the   
   Silicon Valley oligarchy and their satraps. But even these tech jobs are   
   increasingly moving elsewhere. California has seen its share of the   
   nation’s advanced-industry jobs stagnate while jobs in advanced industries   
   to lower-income-tax states.   
      
   A shrinking middle class and a growing exodus of upper class taxpayers –   
   who pay much of the state’s taxes – has now brought about the inevitable   
   fiscal reckoning in the form of a record $68 billion deficit; the state’s   
   Legislative Analyst’s Office predicts continued operating deficits through   
   2028, a consequence of spending that has tripled on a per capita cost   
   adjusted basis over the last fifty years. Meanwhile, prime competitor   
   states like Texas and Florida enjoy large budget surpluses.   
      
   To be sure, California does retain some cultural advantages, and its   
   abortion friendly policies certainly provide some edge against the   
   draconian policies enacted in places like Florida. But the state uber-   
   progressive policies also include less popular features such as granting   
   undocumented immigrants, hard working or not, free emergency healthcare,   
   as middle and working class Californians pay ever higher premiums.   
   California also allows children to change gender without parental   
   approval, and seeks to extract billions in reparations for slavery in a   
   state that never allowed the possession of slaves.   
      
   These policies are depriving California of the human capital critical to   
   its innovation economy. This is made more critical given that California’s   
   K-12 system fails to educate; less than half meet national standards for   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)