As a California resident (Bay Area) I get a close-up view of progressive/liberal rules and regulations. I find it ironical that the liberal ideology, more than any other, relies heavily on rules and regulations to enforce its value system, come hell or high water. Another irony: The San Francisco Bay Area, a liberal bastion if ever there was in the nation, has a monstrous homelessness problem, among the worst public schools, among the highest levels of inequality, sub-standard public housing, and on and on. The reason is that "progressives" are all about virtue-signaling and making more and more rules, but are far less interested in the results of those very rules and regulations.
"Institutions everywhere are filling up with employees bearing skills “orthogonal” to the bureaucratic mission, part of what’s been packaged as progress but feels more like a vast jobs program for otherwise unemployable pseudo-intellectuals."
This is the key passage for me. In CA, there is no will to solve problems, that would only eliminate your job. There is only incentive to create more "problems" that need to be [never] solved.
So what's essentially happening is that there's no Cui Bono anymore. Some lawyers are getting rich, but that money is peanuts. This is bureaucracy and regulation for its own sake.
This ends poorly. I see CA as a late stages drug addiction. There's a bottom here somewhere but not until voters rebel. But if they do rebel, it's game over. If CALIFORNIA Hispanic voters start going even slightly pink or even much less blue, that means Democratic Party is effectively not a national party anymore. At some point making women's sports safe for men is not gonna cut it when gas in LA is $7.
The most absurd rule I came across in LA was when I was trying to get a density bonus approved for a smallish (5 story) multifamily building somewhere in West LA. They denied the plans because the rent-controlled units were all in the same area overlooking the parking lot on the lowest levels. The rule was that the rent-controlled units needed to be distributed around the building, even on the top floor, and had to have the same layout and square footage as the market units.
I just shook my head in disbelief. Its fine to require the construction of more affordable housing in the most expensive parts of the city, but why would you force a developer to forego even *more* market income to subsidize a low-income renter who lives in an equivalent or even better unit? How is that fair or just?
Suffice to say that only the most corrupt actors do business in LA real estate as that is the only way to turn a profit.
The Hock Principle: Simple, clear purpose and principles give rise to complex and intelligent behavior; complex rules and regulations give rise to simple and stupid behavior.
I have lived in CA for 22 years. I have seen the state devolve from the place I admired and wanted to be part of, to a place run by people who roll up the windows when they fart. But the problem isn't just with incompetent politicians who lack the courage to do the job they were hired to do. The problem is with voters/citizens/residents who all too often buy into nonsensical groupthink virtue signaling, unwilling to throw out the incompetents lest they be branded Trump supporters/Republicans/racists/etc. The voters lack the courage to vote their conscience and admit when they've made mistakes, so they elect people that reflect those self defeating values.
"A common complaint is things in the state take forever. California announced a high-speed train in 1996 and the current plan is for service on the L.A-San Francisco line to begin in 2033. One executive I spoke with described the state’s development as “frozen in aspic.”"
The "high-speed" train will never succeed. It is currently hoped to start operations when construction is completed from Bakersfield to Merced. How many passengers will want to pay high prices to travel between those cities? And part of the line is being constructed single-track. If it does run from LA to SF, the cost will be at least $300 each way, higher than the airlines charge for a faster trip, and way above the bus line tickets.
At the same time the line is causing problems for the areas in which it is being built. Farms are being split, making it difficult to work on the land.
This project is an example of how California is imposing irrational plans on the state, of which the endless regulations are a large part. They make sensible actions difficult and much more expensive than they should be. They end up causing more damage to the population and the environment than they could possibly save.
"California is what happens when new money becomes old money. "
Meh. Too clever, not convincing.
Can't we just say that this is what liberals do? Every place where they have complete control for a while. Hypocrisy, virtue signaling, turning everything to shit.
I only hope that the growing Hispanic population, that is becoming more and more conservative, will start to support common sense (I think of Bari every time I use that term anymore) leadership, and possibly start to reverse course.
Other reasons for the obvious decline of Cali include that it is a one-party state (so there is never an interval where another party gets into power and unravels the grandiose schemes and laws concocted by the prior party), that it is a golden goose so there is always mucho money for the state govt to spend on its army of parasites (whose main goal is to make sure the next gen of parasites gets its feeding time) and probably first and foremost that just about ALL of its leadership and ideas class holds the same rigid ideology aka religion that is orthogonal to REALITY, assuming it cares about reality at all.
The Social Justice religion, which is born and rooted in Cali as much as Catholicism is in Rome, has no interest in real-world results, empirical data, obvious policy failures etc (which it would probably denounce as White sumthin or other) because its entire purpose is to put a self-righteous glow into the hearts of its bearers, to make you feel better than those Other People because you know you're on "the right side of history" and "hate has no home here" (except for the enormous hatred for anyone who disagrees).
So the state is infested with bum camps and they only seem to grow in size, filth and disease? The one acceptable answer is that everyone sleeping on the street is a sacred victim of capitalism, that Society failed them, and the only acceptable solution is a $500k apartment for each of them, no strings attached, and if that maybe sounds like a great deal to bums and addicts from the rest of the country, well, 1) only a bigot would say that; and 2) good! we'll give out more free stuff because Love Wins!
Your state has an environmental crisis, housing crisis, literacy crisis, suffocating traffic, massive income inequality, well, then let's invite in a few more million Central American peasants (because No One is Illegal) and if they can't read or do math maybe they just need to do a few state-sanctioned Aztec chants to increase their self-esteem.
What we're witnessing is a state being run purely on the basis of feelings and the real true and holy religion of California: Self-Esteem. So we can expect more and more social collapse, but hey, at least we'll still feel good about ourselves!
State Senator Scott Weiner is one of the major problems in California, not an anti-regulation progressive. Weiner has said that single family residences are "immoral", and has led the effort in the state legislature to pass centralized zoning regulations which would essentially outlaw single family residences. Weiner's other legislation accomplishments include removing registered sex offender status from gay men found guilty of sexual activity with teenage boys.
feels more like a vast jobs program for otherwise unemployable pseudo-intellectuals. “Hire us, pay us, give us and our clients sinecures at your expense,” Kyeyune writes, “or we will make life difficult for you.” THIS SENTENCE EXPRESSES A LOT OF WHAT'S WRONG IN OUR SOCIETY AT THE MOMENT....ACROSS ALL SECTORS
I moved here from the East four years ago, before the serious exodus from California. Higher prices for housing, staying away from Interstate 35 and away from all communities that branch off. Our way of life is changing, and there are serious concerns; where is the water coming from, the grid updates, the education (and various arguments about what type of education) the last thing I want is the Californication of Texas. We just remind people we have snakes, scorpions, you can carry a gun legally, and it is CONSERVATIVE. We have statues of soldiers, there are a lot of CHURCHES, and a short drive is an hour and a half. Very different here in Texas. Don’t change Texas adapt to how we live. You left California because your rules and regulations killed your communities and livelihood. Don’t bring that crap down here.
"Is it the state’s job to make sure companies embrace and promote employees who aren’t interested in their core products? Applied enough times in enough directions, won’t that idea get weird really fast?"
Yes, under the "equity" agenda, it is the state's job to equalize outcomes, regardless of what people may want. And yes, it will/is getting weird really fast.
The "equity" agenda must be named, confronted, and defeated.
This isn't that complicated. Wealth attracts parasites who are unable to earn anything on their own. They slowly infest the host. Smart parasites learn their limitations, so as not to kill the host. Unfortunately, human beings seem to eventually succumb to the super parasites, who, because of envy & desire for the unearned, wreck everything in their path. The State of California is overrun with super parasites and Atlas is Shrugging.
Outside of silicone valley and Hollywood, California is a farm state. A huge portion of our food is provided by California farmers, but actually by their slaves. Imported Hispanic workers are the foundation of California agriculture. Most crops of fruits, nuts, and vegetables must be picked by hand, unlike midwestern crops of corn, wheat, and soybeans which are planted, tended, and harvested by machines. Nobody in the US likes the term “slave”, so we use the term “guest worker”. These workers sign with a specific grower and when they get here, if a farmer up the road pays more, they cannot go up the road to work. They are “owned” by the one they signed with. This works well to keep food cheap in the US and enrich Claifornia farmers. Meanwhile, California taxpayers pay for workers education, healthcare, and transportation. No wonder California has the greatest disparity of wealth and the most “sanctuary cities”.
The Lawyers Who Ate California: Epilogue
As a California resident (Bay Area) I get a close-up view of progressive/liberal rules and regulations. I find it ironical that the liberal ideology, more than any other, relies heavily on rules and regulations to enforce its value system, come hell or high water. Another irony: The San Francisco Bay Area, a liberal bastion if ever there was in the nation, has a monstrous homelessness problem, among the worst public schools, among the highest levels of inequality, sub-standard public housing, and on and on. The reason is that "progressives" are all about virtue-signaling and making more and more rules, but are far less interested in the results of those very rules and regulations.
"Institutions everywhere are filling up with employees bearing skills “orthogonal” to the bureaucratic mission, part of what’s been packaged as progress but feels more like a vast jobs program for otherwise unemployable pseudo-intellectuals."
This is the key passage for me. In CA, there is no will to solve problems, that would only eliminate your job. There is only incentive to create more "problems" that need to be [never] solved.
So what's essentially happening is that there's no Cui Bono anymore. Some lawyers are getting rich, but that money is peanuts. This is bureaucracy and regulation for its own sake.
This ends poorly. I see CA as a late stages drug addiction. There's a bottom here somewhere but not until voters rebel. But if they do rebel, it's game over. If CALIFORNIA Hispanic voters start going even slightly pink or even much less blue, that means Democratic Party is effectively not a national party anymore. At some point making women's sports safe for men is not gonna cut it when gas in LA is $7.
The most absurd rule I came across in LA was when I was trying to get a density bonus approved for a smallish (5 story) multifamily building somewhere in West LA. They denied the plans because the rent-controlled units were all in the same area overlooking the parking lot on the lowest levels. The rule was that the rent-controlled units needed to be distributed around the building, even on the top floor, and had to have the same layout and square footage as the market units.
I just shook my head in disbelief. Its fine to require the construction of more affordable housing in the most expensive parts of the city, but why would you force a developer to forego even *more* market income to subsidize a low-income renter who lives in an equivalent or even better unit? How is that fair or just?
Suffice to say that only the most corrupt actors do business in LA real estate as that is the only way to turn a profit.
The Hock Principle: Simple, clear purpose and principles give rise to complex and intelligent behavior; complex rules and regulations give rise to simple and stupid behavior.
I have lived in CA for 22 years. I have seen the state devolve from the place I admired and wanted to be part of, to a place run by people who roll up the windows when they fart. But the problem isn't just with incompetent politicians who lack the courage to do the job they were hired to do. The problem is with voters/citizens/residents who all too often buy into nonsensical groupthink virtue signaling, unwilling to throw out the incompetents lest they be branded Trump supporters/Republicans/racists/etc. The voters lack the courage to vote their conscience and admit when they've made mistakes, so they elect people that reflect those self defeating values.
"A common complaint is things in the state take forever. California announced a high-speed train in 1996 and the current plan is for service on the L.A-San Francisco line to begin in 2033. One executive I spoke with described the state’s development as “frozen in aspic.”"
The "high-speed" train will never succeed. It is currently hoped to start operations when construction is completed from Bakersfield to Merced. How many passengers will want to pay high prices to travel between those cities? And part of the line is being constructed single-track. If it does run from LA to SF, the cost will be at least $300 each way, higher than the airlines charge for a faster trip, and way above the bus line tickets.
At the same time the line is causing problems for the areas in which it is being built. Farms are being split, making it difficult to work on the land.
This project is an example of how California is imposing irrational plans on the state, of which the endless regulations are a large part. They make sensible actions difficult and much more expensive than they should be. They end up causing more damage to the population and the environment than they could possibly save.
"California is what happens when new money becomes old money. "
Meh. Too clever, not convincing.
Can't we just say that this is what liberals do? Every place where they have complete control for a while. Hypocrisy, virtue signaling, turning everything to shit.
I only hope that the growing Hispanic population, that is becoming more and more conservative, will start to support common sense (I think of Bari every time I use that term anymore) leadership, and possibly start to reverse course.
Other reasons for the obvious decline of Cali include that it is a one-party state (so there is never an interval where another party gets into power and unravels the grandiose schemes and laws concocted by the prior party), that it is a golden goose so there is always mucho money for the state govt to spend on its army of parasites (whose main goal is to make sure the next gen of parasites gets its feeding time) and probably first and foremost that just about ALL of its leadership and ideas class holds the same rigid ideology aka religion that is orthogonal to REALITY, assuming it cares about reality at all.
The Social Justice religion, which is born and rooted in Cali as much as Catholicism is in Rome, has no interest in real-world results, empirical data, obvious policy failures etc (which it would probably denounce as White sumthin or other) because its entire purpose is to put a self-righteous glow into the hearts of its bearers, to make you feel better than those Other People because you know you're on "the right side of history" and "hate has no home here" (except for the enormous hatred for anyone who disagrees).
So the state is infested with bum camps and they only seem to grow in size, filth and disease? The one acceptable answer is that everyone sleeping on the street is a sacred victim of capitalism, that Society failed them, and the only acceptable solution is a $500k apartment for each of them, no strings attached, and if that maybe sounds like a great deal to bums and addicts from the rest of the country, well, 1) only a bigot would say that; and 2) good! we'll give out more free stuff because Love Wins!
Your state has an environmental crisis, housing crisis, literacy crisis, suffocating traffic, massive income inequality, well, then let's invite in a few more million Central American peasants (because No One is Illegal) and if they can't read or do math maybe they just need to do a few state-sanctioned Aztec chants to increase their self-esteem.
What we're witnessing is a state being run purely on the basis of feelings and the real true and holy religion of California: Self-Esteem. So we can expect more and more social collapse, but hey, at least we'll still feel good about ourselves!
State Senator Scott Weiner is one of the major problems in California, not an anti-regulation progressive. Weiner has said that single family residences are "immoral", and has led the effort in the state legislature to pass centralized zoning regulations which would essentially outlaw single family residences. Weiner's other legislation accomplishments include removing registered sex offender status from gay men found guilty of sexual activity with teenage boys.
feels more like a vast jobs program for otherwise unemployable pseudo-intellectuals. “Hire us, pay us, give us and our clients sinecures at your expense,” Kyeyune writes, “or we will make life difficult for you.” THIS SENTENCE EXPRESSES A LOT OF WHAT'S WRONG IN OUR SOCIETY AT THE MOMENT....ACROSS ALL SECTORS
I moved here from the East four years ago, before the serious exodus from California. Higher prices for housing, staying away from Interstate 35 and away from all communities that branch off. Our way of life is changing, and there are serious concerns; where is the water coming from, the grid updates, the education (and various arguments about what type of education) the last thing I want is the Californication of Texas. We just remind people we have snakes, scorpions, you can carry a gun legally, and it is CONSERVATIVE. We have statues of soldiers, there are a lot of CHURCHES, and a short drive is an hour and a half. Very different here in Texas. Don’t change Texas adapt to how we live. You left California because your rules and regulations killed your communities and livelihood. Don’t bring that crap down here.
"Is it the state’s job to make sure companies embrace and promote employees who aren’t interested in their core products? Applied enough times in enough directions, won’t that idea get weird really fast?"
Yes, under the "equity" agenda, it is the state's job to equalize outcomes, regardless of what people may want. And yes, it will/is getting weird really fast.
The "equity" agenda must be named, confronted, and defeated.
This isn't that complicated. Wealth attracts parasites who are unable to earn anything on their own. They slowly infest the host. Smart parasites learn their limitations, so as not to kill the host. Unfortunately, human beings seem to eventually succumb to the super parasites, who, because of envy & desire for the unearned, wreck everything in their path. The State of California is overrun with super parasites and Atlas is Shrugging.
Outside of silicone valley and Hollywood, California is a farm state. A huge portion of our food is provided by California farmers, but actually by their slaves. Imported Hispanic workers are the foundation of California agriculture. Most crops of fruits, nuts, and vegetables must be picked by hand, unlike midwestern crops of corn, wheat, and soybeans which are planted, tended, and harvested by machines. Nobody in the US likes the term “slave”, so we use the term “guest worker”. These workers sign with a specific grower and when they get here, if a farmer up the road pays more, they cannot go up the road to work. They are “owned” by the one they signed with. This works well to keep food cheap in the US and enrich Claifornia farmers. Meanwhile, California taxpayers pay for workers education, healthcare, and transportation. No wonder California has the greatest disparity of wealth and the most “sanctuary cities”.