Joel Kotkin continues to document the deterioration of California, here is a quote to cherish.
Far from embodying an egalitarian ethos, it is pioneering a new kind of almost feudal society. A relative handful of oligarchs and a vast bureaucratic ‘clerisy’ lord it over a massive class of what are essentially serfs.
How does Kotkin justify such a sweeping condemnation?
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. (links in original)
Not only is the much-tarnished "golden" state in a hole, they are still digging. They haven't hit bottom yet.
Afterthought: If you haven't been following Kotkin's writing, his use of "clerisy" may confuse. As he uses the term, it means the body of governmental and quasi-governmental workers including police, teachers, medical workers, prison guards, forest rangers, highway maintenance workers, tax collectors, and elected officials. He sees their role as resembling that of the Roman Catholic church in the feudal society of medieval Europe, it taught, tended to, and controlled the serfs.
