Joel Kotkin — California’s New Feudalism Benefits A Few At The Expense Of The Multitude

As late as the 80s, California was democratic in a fundamental sense, a place for outsiders and, increasingly, immigrants—roughly 60 percent of the population was considered middle class. Now, instead of a land of opportunity, California has become increasingly feudal. According to recent census estimates, the state suffers some of the highest levels of inequality in the country. By some estimates, the state’s level of inequality compares with that of such global models as the Dominican Republic, Gambia, and the Republic of the Congo.

At the same time, the Golden State now suffers the highest level of poverty in the country—23.5 percent compared to 16 percent nationally—worse than long-term hard luck cases like Mississippi. It is also now home to roughly one-third of the nation’s welfare recipients, almost three times its proportion of the nation’s population.

This is concerning in that California has tended to be prophetic of developing cultural change in the United States. The state is now becoming divided into have and have-not's on a scale not seen prior to WWII and the rise of the middle class....

Some of these trends can be found nationwide, but they have become pronounced and are metastasizing more quickly in the Golden State. As late as the 80s, the state was about as egalitarian as the rest of the country. Now, for the first time in decades, the middle class is a minority, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.

New Geography
California’s New Feudalism Benefits A Few At The Expense Of The Multitude
Joel Kotkin | professor of urban development, currently a fellow at Chapman University in Orange, CA and the Legatum Institute, a London-based think tank

What is particularly interesting is that this is happening in a predominantly liberal state the power structure of which is solidly under Democratic control. Those thinking that a national win by "liberal" Democrats will change things for the better should read this article and rethink their position.

America has a serious structural problem arising from many contributing factors. Without recognizing the problem and addressing it comprehensively, the future for most Americans looks bleak.

There is no man on a white horse on the horizon.

While it is true that Joel Kotkin is affiliated with the political right, his analysis in this post is not overly biased in my view.