Academic

JOEL KOTKIN ON CALIFORNIA: The Golden State?s War On Itself. California is in danger of becoming?

By Glenn Reynolds

JOEL KOTKIN ON CALIFORNIA: The Golden State’s War On Itself.

California is in danger of becoming, as historian Kevin Starr has warned, a ?failed state.?

What went so wrong? The answer lies in a change in the nature of progressive politics in California. During the second half of the twentieth century, the state shifted from an older progressivism, which emphasized infrastructure investment and business growth, to a newer version, which views the private sector much the way the Huns viewed a city?as something to be sacked and plundered. The result is two separate California realities: a lucrative one for the wealthy and for government workers, who are largely insulated from economic decline; and a grim one for the private-sector middle and working classes, who are fleeing the state.

If only that view were limited to California. But the charts that go with this piece are damning.

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on August 09, 2010 (boomark / email).