John Gurda's California Dreamin'

Yesterday John Gurda published a lengthy piece in the JS which used the most tiresome of old saws: "We get more and better SERVICES for all that money." I've been in Texas. The roads are about the same. Texas has cops, firemen, and ambulances, airports, and schools.

Gurda coulda been writing about California.

Today's public benefits fail that test, as urban scholar Joel Kotkin of NewGeography.com and Chapman University told the Los Angeles Times in March: "Twenty years ago, you could go to Texas, where they had very low taxes, and you would see the difference between there and California. Today, you go to Texas, the roads are no worse, the public schools are not great but are better than or equal to ours, and their universities are good. The bargain between California's government and the middle class is constantly being renegotiated to the disadvantage of the middle class."

Here, that disadvantage is about $12,500/year in wages ALONE. We all know about the Bentley-class healthcare and pension packages, which are in addition to that...