How California’s ‘neo-feudal reality’ became a warning to the world: ‘A new dominant class of oligarchs & woke bureaucrats has bled the Golden State dry’
JOEL KOTKIN: California is not only home to by far the highest number of billionaires in the US. But it also suffers the highest proportion of Americans living in poverty and the widest gap between middle- and upper-middle-income earners of any state. It endures among the US’ highest rates of unemployment, as well as massive net outmigration, an exodus that has increased sharply since 2019. It also has 30 per cent of the nation’s homeless population, with some now living in ‘furnished’ caves. ...
Unable to provide upward mobility for most, California has chosen to expand what Marx described as ‘the proletarian alms-bag’ for the masses, who are increasingly disconnected from the state’s economy. The state spends a larger share of its budget on welfare than virtually any other state. Rather than seek to expand the economic pie, the oligarchic classes prefer an expansion of redistribution. They favour concepts like a ‘universal basic income’ or subsidies for basics like rent and electricity. Some claim California will be able to foot the bill with profits made from artificial intelligence. Once the epitome of competitive capitalism, the tech industry now promotes, as one Silicon Valley wag put it, ‘feudalism with better marketing’. ...
These policies are a disaster for many. Today one in five Californians – many working – lives in poverty (using a cost-of-living adjusted poverty rate). The Public Policy Institute of California estimates another fifth live in near-poverty – roughly 15million people in total. With the exception of Asians, the state’s racial minorities do far worse – in education, incomes and homeownership – than they do virtually anywhere else in the country. ...
https://www.climatedepot.com/2024/06/12/how-californias-neo-feudal-reality-became-a-warning-to-the-world-a-new-dominant-class-of-oligarchs-woke-bureaucrats-has-bled-the-golden-state-dry/
