Living in California like I do has it’s advantages. Take the weather for example – is there a place on earth with a more benign climate? Doubtful. Then there is the geography with it’s diverse and staggering beauty. This place is seemingly a paradise; yet people are leaving in droves for places like Texas, Idaho and Utah.
No offense Texans, Idahoans and Utah…people. But Why?
Many are emigrating for economic reasons – everything costs more in California. Others are leaving because despite its outward resemblance to paradise, California is not a very free place to live. The Government here intrudes into almost every aspect of life in one form or another. As far as the economic factors I mentioned a sentence or two ago – these economic factors have underlying causes that relate directly back to government intrusion and overreach. We pay high taxes on almost everything, pay taxes that are called “fees” on everything else, and finally we pay artificially high prices on housing, goods and services because of the cost of regulation.
The Progressive Utopia of California is a nanny state – it’s like having your mom always there telling you to pick up your socks and eat your brussels sprouts. Always. There. Except that your California Nanny State Mom is an alcoholic cat lady who is also schizophrenic. And stupid.
Turns out people don’t like being told what to do and how to live and then being made to pay for it. They experience a sudden realization that midwest winters, Texas summers, hurricanes and tornados don’t sound so bad. If you can keep your money and the government will leave you the hell alone, that is.
The Progressive Utopia of California is a nanny state – it’s like having your mom always there telling you to pick up your socks and eat your brussels sprouts. Always. There. Except that your California Nanny State Mom is an alcoholic cat lady who is also schizophrenic. And stupid.
Of course, Nanny State Mom only wants what’s best for you. She only needs ordinances and laws to keep SOME people from making arguably unhealthy or unsafe decisions, presumably for the good of the public at large. The rules start out being somewhat innocuous – things like mandatory automobile seat belt laws, mandatory motorcycle helmet laws, etc. These rules mandating (or prohibiting) behaviors are rarely objected to because most people agree that they are “common sense” or “good ideas”. However, if they are common sense or good ideas wouldn’t people do them on their own? Why do we need a law?
So what happens when California Nanny State Mom has a few other ideas about what’s best for us all that might seem a little…how shall I put this…nutty? Well now we’re gonna need a law. Or two. Or three…hundred thousand.
Because in the Progressive Utopia of California we can’t have people just doing whatever they want. Does that seem like an extreme statement? If you accept the premise of the Nanny State then it is not. Because to accept that someone else, for whatever reason has the right to make decisions for you the only remaining question is how far are they allowed to go in enforcing those choices? In the future Progressive Utopia of California all that is not forbidden will be mandatory. And just exactly how is Mom gonna do that without her boot on your throat?
If it’s so bad, why am I still here? The Prog Lib Dems who pull Nanny State Mom’s strings are telling me to get out. They don’t want me or people like me here. LaLaLaLaLa…I’m not listening to you, mom. I was obstinate as a child and I’m not about to change. Besides, the very fact that I may be an obstacle however small to full realization of the People’s Progressive Dystopian Banana Republic Hellscape of California is reason enough for me to endure and stay. Well, that and the weather.