The lyric in the title is from Joni Mitchell's "California" off the "Blue" album 1971. However one might argue that the economics profession is singing the same tune.
WSJ featured a great interview with demographer Joel Kotkin over the weekend which really got to the heart of the economic challenges facing the Not-So-Golden State. The issues are many: high and rising taxes, restrictions on property use that make housing unaffordable to the middle class, a cap-and-trade law that will chase away the few manufacturing jobs that remain, and rising energy costs in a state committed to go green whatever the cost.
Kotkin thinks things will only get worse as out-migration changes the mix of the electorate:
As progressive policies drive out moderate and conservative members of the middle class, California's politics become even more left-wing. It's a classic case of natural selection, and increasingly the only ones fit to survive in California are the very rich and those who rely on government spending. In a nutshell, "the state is run for the very rich, the very poor, and the public employees."
To borrow from another well-known 1970s lyric: Greece is the word.
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