Why do conservatives keep saying California has "collapsed"?

[All Along The Watchtower]

It's interesting to read the attempts to assign California's problems to either left-wing or right-wing political thinking.

My take is that something like NIMBY issues fails to map well on to either the traditional left-right spectrum or the libertarian-favored political matrix. You can argue about whose interests are driving California's problems, but IMO it's a great example of how impoverished and useless these conceptual frameworks have become.

As a native of California I firmly believe that this is a good post.

[All Along The Watchtower]

Saw someone make the case recently that in the Bay Area one class of worker are developing technologies that aim to engineer the other classes of workers out of their jobs and that this does not help things in terms of building a sense of shared community.

This is correct.

[All Along The Watchtower]

About the only kind of growth in which California now leads is in its homeless population.

Not true.















We lead the country in the growth of smug millionaires and billionaires who are a downright menace to society and the entire world - particularly in the "techie" sector, but also in Hollywood, I suppose. And even when you include Wall Street, the leadership of elite universities, and certain other sectors of Corporate America, the dystopian techies and Hollywood elite are easily the most important donor base of the Democratic Party in the 21st century.