How California became a warning to the world – spiked
Many still see California as the home of a new progressive era . It is often viewed as an exemplar of social equity, one that reflects, as a New York Times column put it, the shared values of our increasingly tolerant and pluralistic society . In truth, 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.
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, with some now living in furnished caves.
The key to understanding California s neo-feudal reality lies in its changing economy. A decade ago, its largest firms included a host of aerospace, finance, energy and service firms. Today, the energy firms have largely disappeared Chevron remains, though it has been moving more operations to Houston, Texas. Only one top aerospace firm, SpaceX, is still headquartered there, and it has also moved many operations to Texas. As Jerry Brown, who was governor of California for 16 years in two different periods, once warned, the state has a precarious Johnny one-note economy. It is based almost entirely on returns to real estate, tech IPOs and the value of privately held unicorn startups.
Joel Kotkin.