Polls show that the public is in a sour mood. The mood persists despite the fact that the country has enjoyed a half decade of incredible prosperity (indeed, the economy continued tomorrow at 4.9% last quarter; the Dow, for all its recent volatility, continues at the 13,000+ level ; and Southern California real estate prices, despite their recent drop, still remain at levels unimagined 15 years ago). Perhaps the sour mood can be traced to the ongoing Iraq conflict. Even here, however, recent public opinion surveys indicate that Americans have increasing confidence that we are now actually winning the war.
What accounts for the public’s mood, then? The mood, at least in Southern California, can best be explained by the people’s perception that quality-of-life trends are seemingly beyond anyone’s control.
For example, just a couple of months ago, the Governor and the Legislature assured us—you’ll recall, with great fanfare-- that they had produced a balanced budget. Now we find that they were themselves victims of unbalanced perception when they made such assurance—at least one knowledgeable recent projection says this year’s fiscal budget deficit could be as high as $10-$11 billion. Apparently, neither the Governor nor the majority party leadership in the Legislature saw this coming.
Also, just a couple of months ago, a federal court Judge in Fresno held that the Endangered Species Act requires Sacramento Delta pumping to be altered drastically to protect the Delta Smelt fish. The result—30% less water availability for Southern California.
Earlier this year, again amidst great fanfare, the Governor and the Legislature hailed the passage of AB 32, mandating that by 2020 greenhouse gases be reduced to 1990 levels. However, as is typical with big-fanfare, sounds-good initiatives, the legislation was drafted and signed by politicians who have no clue how California is going to achieve those decade-and-a-half old levels. Instead, the legislation conveniently laterals this problem to the California Air Resources Board—which, by the way, also hasn’t a clue. As a recent report by a local TV station in Northern California commented: “California is the world's 12th largest producer of greenhouse gases and its law is expected to affect some 800 manufacturing facilities. It requires the major producers -- utilities, oil and gas refineries, large manufacturers, timber companies and cement plants -- to collectively cut emissions over the next 13 years so the state can return to 1990 emission levels. But no one really knows how much that reduction needs to be….”
Already battered by the high-cost of doing business in California, at least one noteworthy business is not waiting around to try to guess what the regulators will ultimately decide. Interstate Bakeries recently announced it will shut down four bakeries, 17 distribution centers and 19 outlet stores, throwing over 1,200 employees out of work. As Sen. Tom McClintock recently commented on his weblog: “Gov. Schwarzenegger’s AB 32 mandates a 25 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2020. A principal byproduct of baking bread is – you guessed it – carbon dioxide. Indeed, without carbon dioxide, there’s no such thing as bread as we know it. Bread gets its spongy texture from yeast converting glucose into equal parts of ethyl alcohol and carbon dioxide. The familiar smell of bread baking is the oxidation of the ethyl alcohol as these gases are released during heating.”
All of this— lack of fiscal sanity in Sacramento; judicially-ordered drought; feel-good legislation without concrete plans to implement the mandates; business fleeing the intense regulatory climate enveloping the State-- is made even worse by occurring against a backdrop of continued population increase which local and State government have been prohibited (by the federal Courts) from regulating.
The California Legislative Analyst in 2000 published a treatise entitled “Cal Facts”. Among the findings:
- “It took about 100 years to reach the 10 million mark, but since then California has been adding 10 million people every 20 years.”
- “Currently, the state is adding about 560,000 people annually—roughly equal to a city the size of Bakersfield or a state the size of Vermont.”
- “Foreign net in-migration accounts for the majority of total in-migration. It is consistently in the 200,000-300,000 range annually.” (emphasis in original).
With over one-half million people increasing our population annually and with the California-based Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches behaving as they do, how are we going to provide government services, including water, and keep people employed? No one knows—least of all, the government officials who make these policies without any apparent appreciation for the fact that edicts in one issue area have a ripple effect and serious consequences in other areas of our lives.
No wonder people are in a sour mood. Our leaders continue to demonstrate that they themselves need to be led to public policy which takes account of the whole society, not just their pet issues.