I mean, think about it, how can they? When they gleefully vote for idiotic measures such as Prop 6 which kept gas prices high, or when they virtue signaled their love for animal rights when they voted for Prop 12 which would end up raising the price of food in California, mainly eggs which will all have to be cage free by 2022.
In the lounges, coffee shops, and hookah bars of coastal cities, these measures seem like they are only one step closer to the leftist Utopian society which is what they dream of. It sounds great in theory, but in the end as is with most leftist policies, the unintended consequences hurt those most who can’t sustain the abuse.
Time and time again, California liberals continue to vote for Propositions that hurt the poor California. When they vote for the state to interject itself into the housing market by controlling prices, they are hurting the poor by forcing prices up. When they vote for measures that put more regulations on farmers, their food bills go up. When they allow the state to screw with utilities, their utility bills go up.
The truth of the matter is, California liberals don’t care about the poor when they vote.
They pretend they care. They support measures that sound good on paper (usually with the help of some crafty proposition writing). The measures at least make them feel better so they can humble brag to their buddies down at Equinox how liberal and “woke” they are for voting for a better future. But in the end, they don’t realize how much these measures hurt the poor in California.
Even the left leaning LA Times recognized the issue in an article written at the start of 2018.
It’s not as though California policymakers have neglected to wage war on poverty. Sacramento and local governments have spent massive amounts in the cause. Several state and municipal benefit programs overlap with one another; in some cases, individuals with incomes 200% above the poverty line receive benefits. California state and local governments spent nearly $958 billion from 1992 through 2015 on public welfare programs, including cash-assistance payments, vendor payments and “other public welfare,” according to the Census Bureau. California, with 12% of the American population, is home today to about one in three of the nation’s welfare recipients.
The generous spending, then, has not only failed to decrease poverty; it actually seems to have made it worse.
The article goes on to say that the inverse has happened in California. The continued push of progressive, welfare policies has actually exacerbated the problem with some individuals receiving benefits even though their income is 200% above the poverty line.
And what about housing?
Further contributing to the poverty problem is California’s housing crisis. More than four in 10 households spent more than 30% of their income on housing in 2015.
“Counties and local governments have imposed restrictive land-use regulations that drove up the price of land and dwellings. Middle-income households have been forced to accept lower standards of living while the less fortunate have been driven into poverty by the high cost of housing.”
It’s all in the name of pushing forward “California Values.” We are doomed to continue down this path so long as politicians in Sacramento continue to face no opposition.
Apparently content with futile poverty policies, Sacramento lawmakers can turn their attention to what historian Victor Davis Hanson aptly describes as a fixation on “remaking the world.” The political class wants to build a costly and needless high-speed rail system; talks of secession from a United States presided over by Donald Trump; hired former attorney general Eric H. Holder Jr. to “resist” Trump’s agenda; enacted the first state-level cap-and-trade regime; established California as a “sanctuary state” for illegal immigrants; banned plastic bags, threatening the jobs of thousands of workers involved in their manufacture; and is consumed by its dedication to “California values.”
The truth is, “California values” are quickly becoming the values pushed by those who have annual incomes over seven figures, live in gated communities, and shop unencumbered at Whole Foods. The problem is these values are not representative of the whole state. These leftists are blind to the damage they inflict because they are safe behind their guarded community walls (guarded by security with guns mind you).
They simply don’t see it.
It’s out of sight out of mind for these people. And in areas where poverty is especially high (think of the homeless encampments in San Francisco and LA), they turn their nose up and simply say “That’s the bad part of town.”
But they will march on all in the name of their leftist utopia. One where they can virtue signal to the world how amazing they are and how compassionate they are. That they willingly pay more in taxes because…well they help the little people…somehow….right?
They will Snapchat their “I Voted” stickers to show how engaged they are, and maybe throw in a hashtag like “#NoOn6” to show they voted the “correct” way. But soon after they will be back to snapping photos of them clinking champagne glasses at a beach bar while the sun goes down, far from those “bad areas of town” they look down on. All the while hoping that some government bureaucrat will take their hard earned tax dollars and put it to good use to fix a problem they care nothing about.
All because California liberals don’t care about the poor.
