Three Key Takeaways:
- A new report reveals California’s alarming decline under Governor Gavin Newsom’s leadership, with the state facing the highest cost-adjusted poverty rate and increasing reliance on progressive policies that have worsened conditions for working families.
- Newsom’s climate-centric policies have led to high energy prices, inefficiency in addressing fire disasters, and a loss of economic vitality, with many businesses and residents leaving the state for better opportunities elsewhere.
- The state is experiencing a population exodus, particularly among working-age adults, while housing costs and the birthrate continue to decline, highlighting the failure of Newsom’s approach to the state’s deep-rooted issues.
Gavin Newsom has spent years portraying California as America’s shining progressive beacon.
But he can’t hide the Golden State’s painful reality any longer.
And Gavin Newsom turned red with rage after this brutal report exposed California’s devastating decline.
California’s dream turned nightmare
California was once America’s symbol of opportunity and innovation. Under Democrat Governor Pat Brown in the 1950s and ‘60s, the state enjoyed what historian Kevin Starr called “a golden age of consensus and achievement.”
But according to a bombshell report from RealClearInvestigations, today’s California has become a cautionary tale of progressive policies gone wrong.
The report revealed that far from being a model of “progressive capitalism,” California now hosts both the highest number of billionaires and the highest cost-adjusted poverty rate in America. Nearly one in five Californians lives in poverty when adjusted for cost of living, with another one-fifth living in near-poverty – roughly 15 million people total.
“‘California’ is a model that no longer delivers,” the investigation concluded.
The climate obsession destroying opportunity
Governor Gavin Newsom has made “climate leadership” the centerpiece of his administration. But this relentless focus on climate goals has crushed ordinary Californians under astronomical costs while delivering questionable benefits.
The report exposed how California’s climate policies have burdened residents with the highest energy prices in the continental United States – double the national average – causing widespread “energy poverty” among working families.
Even worse, the California Air Resources Board finally admitted that current state climate policies “would disproportionately harm households earning less than $100,000 per year while boosting incomes for those above this threshold.”
Newsom’s policies have imposed massive subsidies for wind and solar, mandates to reduce car use, and forced electrification of home appliances costing thousands per household – all while China exported over $120 billion in goods to California in 2023, many produced with coal.
Fire disasters made worse by misplaced priorities
The recent fires that devastated Los Angeles exposed the shortcomings of Newsom’s climate-obsessed leadership. While Newsom blamed climate change for the blazes, the investigation found his administration’s neglect of water delivery and forest management significantly contributed to their intensity.
In 2014, California voters overwhelmingly approved $2.7 billion to increase water storage capacity. Yet a decade later, progress has been “glacial” as entrenched bureaucracies delay permits.
Meanwhile, the state spent a quarter billion dollars helping environmental groups destroy dams along the Klamath River. The result? Most of the river’s existing fish and organisms were killed by toxic sediment as the dams were removed.
Even as Newsom rails against “misinformation,” his climate blame game has been “widely debunked by scientists like Steve Koonin and Roger Pielke and the U.S. Geological Service,” according to the report.
Exodus of businesses and families
California’s once-vibrant economy is hemorrhaging jobs and businesses. The state’s last major oil firm, Chevron, recently moved to Houston, and In-and-Out Burger announced plans to relocate to Tennessee. Other major companies like Toyota, Nissan, Charles Schwab, and even Hollywood studios are fleeing the state.
The investigation found California is “the single worst state in the nation when it comes to creating jobs that pay above average.” Since 2008, the state has created five times as many low-wage jobs as high-wage jobs.
The only sector seeing significant growth in higher-wage jobs is government, where the average annual pay is now almost double that of private sector jobs.
Housing costs have skyrocketed thanks to climate-driven restrictions on suburban development. The median California home is priced nearly 2.5 times higher than the national median, while homeownership among Californians under 35 has fallen by more than half since 1980.
The great exodus
The result? A once-unthinkable population decline. Since 2000, more than 4 million residents – equivalent to the entire Seattle metropolitan area – have fled California for other states. The pace has accelerated since 2020, with nearly 1.5 million people leaving in just four years.
Those departing are primarily working-age adults in their 30s to 50s – precisely the people who tend to buy houses, start businesses, and raise families. In 2022 alone, California lost over 200,000 net migrants older than 25, mostly with college degrees.
Meanwhile, the state’s birthrate has plummeted. Los Angeles and San Francisco now rank last and second-to-last in birthrates among major U.S. metropolitan areas.
“California, the birthplace of youth culture, is getting old,” the report noted. By 2036, seniors will actually outnumber children under 18.
The RealClearInvestigations report concluded that Newsom’s response to this decline has been to spend tens of millions on “Trump-proofing” the state rather than addressing the fundamental problems driving California’s downward spiral.
