Big government is the new West Coast craze

[workinclasszero]

Big government is the new West Coast craze
By Jim Tankersley November 5

Voters up and down the West Coast are quietly poised to extend a massive economic experiment this Election Day, probing the limits of how much states can soak the big guys to help the little guys.

Their efforts — in three of the hottest state economies in the country — defy decades of conservative arguments about cutting taxes to spur economic growth. Advocates are already planning how to export them to the rest of the country.

The new West Coast Model is higher taxes on the rich, higher spending by the state and wide-scale efforts to lift the working poor, all in the pursuit of stronger and more evenly shared growth. It is on the ballot in three states: Californians are set to essentially make permanent an income tax surcharge on millionaires in order to fund education. Washington voters appear likely to raise their minimum wage statewide to $13.25 an hour, and to mandate paid sick leave for workers.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/11/05/big-government-is-the-new-west-coast-craze/

[4lbs]

1. So goes the West, so goes the rest.

[workinclasszero]

2. Yup and California is going to

legalize recreational pot I hear.

It won't be long for the rest of the country to follow.

[Ernesto]

3. As a California native, I like the saying......

"The future always gets here 1st"

[nolabels]

4. Another hit piece from the moneyed interest concern

Their model is steal from those not wary enough. The secret that nobody told them is abundance flows when it is shared. The craze is also mislabeled, it actually about keeping our noses above the large abyss full of corporate swill.

[bhikkhu]

5. Effective government is the goal

Or "good government", or "right-sized" government". Its easy to look at Kansas or other right-wing states as the counter-examples. Effective government at the state level really does make a difference in the lives, the general well-being and prosperity, of the people. And most importantly in the long-term opportunities for children.

Capitalism inherently and progressively concentrates power and wealth at the top of the owner-class, at the expense of the rest. Government is the essential tool developed to balance that tendency, and provide for social equality and opportunity. The US has been out of balance, clearly, for many years, and its certainly not because "government is too big".