https://www.wsj.com/articles/california-is-coming-for-you-11598804191
I didn’t have to read the entire Democratic Party platform, let alone the spend-tasmagoric Biden-Sanders Unity Task Force recommendations. Sitting here in California, I’m already living it. If polls are to be believed, left-coast policies are coming to you soon—and you’re not going to like it. California is an early glimpse for the rest of the country of a blackout-rolling, water-deprived, tax-hiking, spending-spiking one-party state longing for its old incandescent glow.
The U.S. may flip to one party rule; California is already there. Democrats have controlled the state Assembly since 1997 and the governorship since 2011—or 1999 if you ignore Arnold the Governator, as most do. Single-party rule means single-party rules. We’re No. 1 in the top marginal income tax rate at 13.3%, including for capital gains. That beats New York City. We’re also No. 1 in state sales tax, but only ninth when you include local levies. Still impressive! Everything else follows.
This month Californians have been subjected to rolling blackouts because of the state’s renewable energy mandates—33% today, 60% by 2030 and 100% by 2045. When the sun goes down, which I understand happens every evening, solar cells are worthless. So California has to buy energy on the spot market—sometimes for 10 times normal prices when it’s hot. So we get rolling blackouts. This craziness could be yours too in the near future. Get used to higher bills and resetting your clocks.
California is No. 3 in the nation in water prices. Sad, since it grows 90% of America’s broccoli, 95% of its garlic, 71% of spinach, 69% of carrots and two-thirds of fruits and nuts. Your prices are going up. And kiss incandescent lightbulbs goodbye—most were outlawed in California as of Jan. 1. Someone please send a box of 60-watt flame-tip candelabra base bulbs my way. I’m getting desperate.
And of course, California spends money like a drunken sailor. The state is blessed with tax dollars spouting from employees of Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft via LinkedIn, Amazon (whose search operation is based in Palo Alto), Twitter, Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, Palantir and—oops, check that, Palantir is moving its headquarters to Colorado. Can’t say I blame them.
Where does the money go?
There’s no question that the state is a parasite. But the first rule of parasites is: Don’t kill the host. California is trying nonetheless, especially with innovation dynamos Uber and Lyft. Assembly Bill 5 kicked in on Jan. 1, reclassifying many “gig economy” workers as employees, a blatant move to help unions organize.
It’s a mess. Close to home, freelance journalists are limited to an arbitrary 35 submissions. Monday, Aug. 31 is the deadline for several bills to provide journalists and others exemptions. But holding it up, quelle surprise, is a debate over giving exemptions to “certified translators” but not to interpreters. What a surprise, the interpreters are up in arms. You can’t make this stuff up. Stop micromanaging; better to repeal AB 5 outright.
Uber and Lyft, the real targets of AB 5, threatened to halt California operations rather than classify drivers as employees. On Aug. 20 an appeals court allowed them to continue temporarily. They and DoorDash are funding a ballot measure in November, Proposition 22, to exempt drivers from reclassification and provide new minimum wages and benefits. This paper reported that only 2% of California Uber drivers used the app for more than 40 hours a week, and only 14% of Lyft drivers drove more than 20 hours a week. Some drivers use both apps, but it’s still overwhelmingly part-time work.
So what do the 300,000 Uber and 200,000 Lyft drivers actually want, as opposed to what California says they want? Like any good tech experiment, let’s do an A/B test. Have Uber drivers classified as employees and Lyft drivers as independent contractors, or vice versa. Within a month we’d see which model drivers prefer. I’m tired of power grabs under the guise of good intentions.
