In Joel Kotkin's latest op-ed, he dives deep into the numbers behind the 'California Dream'... and how (and why) that dream has actually vanished.
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"In a new report for Chapman University, my colleagues and I find California in a state of existential crisis, losing both its middle-aged and middle class, while its poor population faces dimming prospects," Joel Kotkin writes. "Despite the state’s myriad advantages, research shows it plagued by economic immobility and inequality, crushing housing and energy costs, and a failing education system. Worse than just a case of progressive policies creating regressive outcomes, it appears California is descending into something resembling modern-day feudalism, with the poor and weak trapped by policies subsidized by taxes paid by the rich and powerful."
Are you still an optimist in California?
With the highest cost-adjusted poverty rate in the U.S., it's hard to believe anyone could be anymore...