Fareed Zakaria is far from a conservative, but he’s increasingly a straight shooter in diagnosing economic problems in America. His latest column and six minute spanking of California politicians for ruining this once great state is well worth watching.

He quite rightly blasts California as “a case study in how a rich society can spend more and more while producing less and less of what its ordinary citizens need.” He picks up many of our themes at UP on how some of the once great cities of California, from Oakland to L.A., are increasingly becoming unlivable progressive hellholes.

He notes that since 2000, California’s population has grown by roughly 15% percent and the number of state employees by more than 50%. But the state’s general expenditures have grown more than 200%, from $78 billion to about $248 billion. Its per pupil spending on public education is well above the national average but its results place it in the bottom third of states.

Zakaria reports that “in 2025, California essentially failed to add any new jobs on net; private industries outside government and government-supported health care actually shed jobs…..The state is using public spending to paper over private-sector stagnation.”

Zakaria asks “Why does a state with so much money, talent and promise make life for ordinary people so hard?”

Somebody should start asking Governor Gavin Newsom that question.