Number One in Poverty, California Isn’t Our Most Progressive State — It’s Our Most Racist One
▻https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2018/05/31/number-one-in-poverty-california-isnt-our-most-progressive-state-its-our-mos
the Golden State is also number one in poverty and inequality in America.
How can this be? Around the world, progressive economies like those of Sweden, France, and Germany, which redistribute wealth through high taxes and generous social welfare policies, boast far less poverty and inequality than other nations.
What gives? And how does California maintain its reputation as a progressive leader given the reality on the ground?
If racism is more than just saying nasty things — if it is, as scholars like James Baldwin, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Michelle Alexander and countless others have described, embedded into socioeconomic structures — then California isn’t just the least progressive state. It’s also the most racist.
(…)
In the 2013 science fiction film, “Elysium,” the rich have fled to a luxury satellite orbiting Earth while the poor toil in dangerous conditions below. Life in California today differs in degree, not in kind, from that dystopian vision.
(…) [#California]’s residents believe they are progressive.
How do they maintain that fiction, which is more detached from reality than “Elysium” the movie? By living in a fantasy world where California is leading the world in saving the environment and fighting racism.
But in saving the environment, California progressives increased electricity rates, hurt manufacturing, and allowed carbon emissions to rise even while they declined in the rest of the U.S.