Posted on 06/11/2017 12:43:55 PM PDT by amnestynone
California is widely celebrated as the fount of technical, cultural and political innovation. Now we seem primed to outdo even ourselves, creating a new kind of socialism that, in the end, more resembles feudalism than social democracy.
The new consensus is being pushed by, among others, hedge-fund-billionaire-turned-green-patriarch Tom Steyer. g subsidies for the struggling poor and middle class. This new progressive synthesis promises not upward mobility and independence, but rather the prospect of turning most Californians into either tax slaves or dependent serfs.
California’s progressive regime of severe land-use controls has helped to make the state among the most unaffordable in the nation, driving homeownership rates to the lowest levels since the 1940s. It has also spurred a steady hegira of middle-aged, middle-class families — the kind of tax-burdened people Gov. Jerry Brown now denounces as “freeloaders” — from the state. They may have access to smartphones and virtual reality, but the increasingly propertyless masses seem destined to live in the kind of cramped conditions that their parents and grandparents had escaped decades earlier. A green people’s republic?
There is some irony in a new kind of socialism blessed by some of the world’s richest people. The new policy framework is driven, in large part, by a desire to assume world leadership on climate-related issues. The biggest losers will be manufacturing, energy and homebuilding workers, who will see their jobs headed to other states and countries.
Under the new socialism, expect more controls over the agribusiness sector, notably the cattle industry, California’s original boom industry, which will be punished for its cows’ flatulence. Limits on building in the periphery of cities also threaten future growth in construction employment, once the new regulations are fully in place.
(Excerpt) Read more at ocregister.com ...
Socialism, as with all other iterations of Statism, always devolves into feudal stagnation and decay.
Socialism is feudalism with a college degree.
Killing the Golden State.
I would call it more like a free fall rather than a decent.
“Socialism is feudalism with a college degree.”
Hmmmm, only of one considers the majority of boxtop degrees in meaningless majors acquired by semi-idiots who wouldn’t have scored a high school degree 75 years ago.
And this includes a heck of a lot of law schools, which seem to be only good for creating job opportunities for the world’s most worthless profession: politics.
Oops, “if”, not “of”. I made a Dorkbama mistake.
Kotkin votes Democrat - FYI
The funny part of all this is it WILL result in the confiscation of the wealth of these idiots. And if they think they can avoid it by moving.....well the exit tax will take care of that
“Kotkin votes Democrat - FYI”
He is still Cadell Democrat. Which is to say he only pretends to be so.
Sad, I remember growing up there when it was the golden state.
This is okay.
The states were meant to be separate labs for freedom.
Californians can vote against this idiocy with their feet.
However, it would be nice if they left the baggage that made this foolishness possible behind in California.
Also, if we have to ‘bail out’ California, it should lose its status as a state, its elected officials should be arrested, and there should be a ‘bail in’ - remaining Califorians having their cash and property confiscated.
Being on the ground here in Southern California, I can tell you the people here are stupid. California isn’t lost because of the mass influx of illegals. It’s the white people that live here that are incredibly stupid.
First off they are liberals because that is what pop culture says is cool to be. Every white a-hole in California wants to be “cool”.
Secondly, they think Moonbeam II has been an incredibly successful governorship. They see this state as booming economically because their homes are over inflated in value. Once again you see these dumb whites taking out equity to by boats, RV’s, cruises, etc. There is another housing bubble in this state and it’s going to pop soon. But I can pretty much guarantee these stupid guilty, white liberals will blame Donald Trump when they are underwater with their homes again and will demand a bailout so they can keep their homes and they will be even more pissed when Trump says no.
Thirdly, all the signs California is failing is all around them. Rampant homelessness, several empty stores in every shopping center, businesses continuing to leave the state in droves and massive small business failures. The white morons think the homelessness is cool and “so quirky California” and businesses are leaving the state because “corrupt Republican governors in the southern states are bribing business the leave and go there.
California is on the verge of collapse, but none of the Democrats that hold every single statewide office, no the Democrat super majorities in the state senate and state assembly will get the blame. They will all blame Donald Trump.
California’s progressive regime haven’t passed the gas tax bill yet and they are putting 15 million of it go to parks.
Got to have a place for the illegals and slackers to sleep.
Probably an accurate summation. In cases like that, cauterization is often the only chance for cure. Sadly, you see it happening in other places, too, Phoenix, Tucson, Denver, Boulder, Austin. All are or are becoming centers of radical liberalism, therefore decay and degradation. Too bad, really. Lots of natural beauty literally going to pot.
Socialism will destroy California—it is very clear.
The “new kind of socialism” will do until the leaders have the people in a position where they can revert to the old kind of socialism and start mass killings.
California turning liberal? Say it isn’t so.
Exactly. His last few sentences make the point:
In the end, we are witnessing the continuation of an evolving class war, pitting the oligarchs and their political allies against the state’s diminished middle and working classes. It might work politically, as the California electorate itself becomes more dependent on government largesse, but it’s hard to see how the state makes ends meet in the longer run without confiscating the billions now held by the ruling tech oligarchs.
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