California, Poverty Capital

The plastic bag jab is an odd thing to include. It really doesn’t fit the narrative they are pushing at all.

It’s a single use plastic bag ban, and it was pushed to a public vote by the plastic bag manufacturers themselves as an apparent delay tactic so they could sell more bags in the interim and adapt to making recycled plastic bags. Industry and the people had their say.

https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-aler...

The writer mentions the late 80s and 90s welfare reforms without mentioning how much the overall economy grew in the 90s, and doesn’t mention that welfare itself dropped but in many ways the public assistance just changed from cash payments to other forms of assistance and that income did rise for these people, partially as a result of minimum wage increases, in Michigan at least, but not always enough to lift them out of poverty. Studies in Michigan also showed that a very large percentage of those that left the welfare system did so without obtaining work. I think to blame California’s poverty mostly on welfare is more than disingenuous, it’s wrong. For many of these people it’s not keeping them poor, it’s keeping them alive. The great disparity of wealth and income between classes is the problem imo.

The article is bylined "Kerry Jackson is the Pacific Research Institute’s fellow in California studies." Their Mission Statement [1] opens:

"The mission of the Pacific Research Institute (PRI) is to champion freedom, opportunity, and personal responsibility for all individuals by advancing free-market policy solutions. Since its founding in 1979, PRI has remained steadfast to the vision of a free and civil society where individuals can achieve their full potential. Put simply, public policy is too important to be left just to the experts. Individuals are the real decision makers when it comes to their schools, health care, and environment."

In other words, those funding Mr. Jackson's work have known the answers to California's problems in 2018 since at least 1979. More here: https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Pacific_Research_Insti...

[1]https://www.pacificresearch.org/mission-statement/

If we built more housing, SV would be a lot better positioned to help. Instead, they can't even move the needle on housing. Too many obstinant city councils. Much of VC capital goes to rent, as a few VCs recently lamented.

Yeah, I went to a tech conference in San Francisco a few months back, it was at Moscone center.

I saw scads of homeless people, poop on the sidewalk, and heard cop cars from my hotel room all through the night.

California had better make some changes, quickly. It didn't look good.