| “We in the West impeded home construction in ways that made cities unaffordable, especially for people of color. The basic reason for homelessness on the West Coast is an enormous shortage of housing that drives up rents. California lacks about three million housing units, in part because it’s difficult to get permission to build…
What matters is improving opportunities and quality of life, and the best path to do that is a relentless empiricism — which clashes with the West Coast’s indifference to the laws of economics….What is needed is less purity and more pragmatism and first step must be the humility to acknowledge our failures.”
Editors’ note: This is all true – but even Kristof doesn’t diagnose or acknowledge the full extent of the dysfunction of progressive governance. Yes, over-regulation of housing is a problem.
But what about drugs? What about confiscatory taxes? What about the miserable schools? What about the lawlessness thanks to leftist prosecutors? What about the anti business culture? |
