California's Plantation Economy

Victor Davis Hanson writes for National Review. Think of today's column as another 'stanza' in his continuing elegy for California in decline. Like me, he grew up loving the state and is saddened beyond measure at what it has become.

Crime is back up in California. Los Angeles reported a 20.6 percent increase in violent crimes over the first half of 2015 and nearly an 11 percent increase in property crimes.

Last year, cash-strapped California taxpayers voted for Proposition 47, which so far has let thousands of convicted criminals go free from prison and back onto the streets. Now the state may have to relearn what lawbreakers often do when let out of jail early.

Traffic accidents in California increased by 13 percent over a three-year period — the result of terrible roads and worse drivers. Almost half of all accidents in Los Angeles are hit-and-runs where the drivers leave the scene.

The state devolved into a pyramid of the coastal wealthy and interior poor — the dual constituencies of the new progressive movement. A third of America’s welfare recipients reside in California. Nearly a quarter of Californians live below the poverty line.

I'm surprised Hanson doesn't identify CA as having a Latin America-like "plantation economy" with the few wealthy keeping their distance from a sea of poor peasants. It's an exaggeration to be sure, but not a huge one.