
California, Poverty Capital - prostoalex
https://www.city-journal.org/html/california-poverty-capital-15659.html
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lttlrck
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...](https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-
alert/article113898813.html)

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spenrose
Per my earlier comment, one déformation professionnelle with being a
libertarian "researcher" is that your funders expect you to tie the grand
principles that make your soul sing to their parochial interests. "Keep your
Pigovian taxes and Coasean bargaining away from my bottom line if you value
your salary."

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alphabettsy
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.

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spenrose
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...](https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Pacific_Research_Institute)

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

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cpr
Ad hominem. Can you address the issues?

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spenrose
"Those funding Mr. Jackson's work have known the answers to California's
problems in 2018 since at least 1979" is not ad hominem, it's meta. Ad hominem
would be "he's a jerk." PRI is a stopped clock. You are free to decide this is
one of the times they are correct.

~~~
cpr
Ad hominem applied to the institution...

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purplezooey
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.

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RickJWagner
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.

