NewGeography.com blogs

The Collapse of California

If one were to explore the most blessed places on earth, California, my home for a half century, would surely be up there. The state, with its salubrious climate, spectacular scenery, vast natural resources, and entrepreneurial heritage is home to the world’s fifth-largest economy and its still-dominant technological centre. It is also — as some progressives see it — the incubator of “a capitalism we can believe in”.

Perhaps channelling such hyperbole, President Biden recently suggested that he wants to “make America California again”. Yet before leaping on this particular train, he should consider whether the California model may be better seen as a cautionary tale than a roadmap to a better future in the digital age.

The on-the-ground reality — as opposed to that portrayed in the media or popular culture — is more Dickensian than utopian. Rather than the state where dreams are made, in reality California increasingly presents the prototype of a new feudalism fused oddly with a supposedly progressive model in which inequality is growing, not falling.

California now suffers the highest cost-adjusted poverty rate in the country, and the widest gap between middle and upper-middle income earners. It also has one of the nation’s highest Gini ratios, which measures the inequality of wealth distribution from the richest to poorest residents — and the disparity is growing. Incredibly, California’s level of inequality is greater than that of neighboring Mexico, and closer to Central American countries like Guatemala and Honduras than developed nations like Canada and Norway.

It is true that California’s GDP per capita is far higher than these Central American countries, but the state has slowly morphed into a low wage economy. Over the past decade, 80% of the state’s jobs have paid under the median wage — half of which are paid less than $40,000 — and most are in poorly paid personal services or hospitality jobs. Even at some of the state’s most prestigious companies like Google, many lower (and even mid-level) workers live in mobile home parks. Others sleep in their cars.

The state’s dependence on low-wage service workers has been critical in the pandemic, but it now suffers among the highest unemployment rates in the nation, outdone only by tourism-dominated states like Hawaii, Nevada and New Jersey. Los Angeles, the home of Hollywood, now has the highest unemployment rate of the nation’s top ten metropolitan areas, higher even than New York.

But that hasn’t stopped California from portraying itself as a progressive’s paradise, publicly advocating racial and social justice. The state just passed a Racial Justice Act to monitor law enforcement, endorsing reparations (although California was never a slave state) and is working to address “systemic” racism in its classrooms. This “woke” agenda was taken to a new extreme this week when the San Francisco School Board decided to rename 44 schools because they were named after people connected to racism or slavery. The district’s Arts Department, originally known as “VAPA”, also decided to re-brand because “acronyms are a symptom of white supremacy culture”.

Read the rest of this piece at UnHerd.


Joel Kotkin is the author of The Coming of Neo-Feudalism: A Warning to the Global Middle Class. He is the Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University and Executive Director for Urban Reform Institute. Learn more at joelkotkin.com and follow him on Twitter @joelkotkin.

Springsteen's Right: Unity Can Only Begin in the Middle

Bruce Springsteen’s name may be on the marquee of the Jeep Super Bowl ad featuring The Boss, which is titled “The Middle.” But Lebanon, Kansas -- the real middle -- is the star.

And while the message of the rock-and-roll icon from New Jersey is an appeal for national healing, using a chapel in the geographic center of the nation as a backdrop, out here in Flyover Country we may experience the two-minute commercial differently than other Americans. That’s not just because many in the heartland dislike The Boss’s politics.

It’s really because we know that if the true healing of America ever is going to begin, on a universally edifying basis, it’s going to begin in The Middle. Our middle.

Springsteen knew that. So did Olivier Francois, the chief marketing officer for Jeep and the other brands owned by what used to be Fiat Chrysler and now part of Stellantis. Springsteen has been legendarily shy about making commercial endorsements, but Francois finally was able to draw him into a Big Game ad with an invitation to apply some salve to the national wound.

And the way that Francois – a Frenchman who worked for an Italian company but a very shrewd reader of American moods and culture – drew in The Boss was with a script for an ad that focused on the U.S. Center Chapel in the middle.

“It’s no secret,” Springsteen begins the spot. “The middle has been a hard place to get to lately, between red and blue, between servant and citizen, between our freedom and our fear,” The Boss intones, in a script he helped pen himself, over a new musical score he also assisted in writing.

“Now, fear has never been the best of who we are. And as for freedom, it’s not just the property of the fortunate few; it belongs to us all. Whoever you are, wherever you’re from. It’s what connects us. We need that connection. We need the middle. We just have to remember the very soil we stand on is common ground.”

Springsteen finishes by urging Americans to come together to “cross this divide,” before Jeep ends the ad by putting on screen, “The ReUnited States of America.” A star on a U.S. map where Lebanon is located sits between “ReUnited” and “States.”

The images carrying the narrative are a virtual paean to the raw simplicity of the Great Plains in the winter, to its rolling hills, rolling stock on the rails, rugged rock outcroppings, icy sunsets and slush-strewn city streets.

There’s even a baldly spiritual statement encompassed by the cross on top of the chapel, and the three crosses stuck in a field outside – all of which are embraced by the ad. Springsteen sits in the tiny chapel and lights a votive candle toward the end.

Read the rest of this piece at flyovercoalition.org.

Dale Buss is founder and executive director of The Flyover Coalition, a not-for-profit organization aimed at helping revitalize and promote the economy, companies and people of the region between the Appalachians and Rockies, the Gulf Coast and the Great Lakes. He is a long-time author, journalist, and magazine and newspaper editor, and contributor to Chief Executive, Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and many other publications. Buss is a Wisconsin native who lives in Michigan and has also lived in Texas, Pennsylvania and Florida.

Subjects:

Super Bowl Sunday is Flyover Affair — Down to the Ads

This year, the Big Game is about Flyover Country more than ever. Two of our teams are battling it out. They’re contesting on one of our fields. And their strivings on the gridiron will be accompanied by an ample chorus of TV and digital advertisements by companies that hail from the heartland, ranging from automakers to insurers to food processors to mortgage brokers.

There’s no telling the outcome of Super Bowl LV in a potentially great, quarterback-led match-up in Raymond James Stadium in Tampa between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes’s Kansas City Chiefs, the reigning champions. But you can be certain that advertisers based in the middle of America will be providing plenty of great commercial moments to the rest of the country and the world.

Read the rest of this piece at The Flyover Coalition.


Dale Buss is founder and executive director of The Flyover Coalition, a not-for-profit organization aimed at helping revitalize and promote the economy, companies and people of the region between the Appalachians and Rockies, the Gulf Coast and the Great Lakes. He is a long-time author, journalist, and magazine and newspaper editor, and contributor to Chief Executive, Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and many other publications. Buss is a Wisconsin native who lives in Michigan and has also lived in Texas, Pennsylvania and Florida.

Feudal Future Podcast — A Test of Strength: Pandemics Through the Eye of Religion, with Rev. John L. McCullough

On this episode of Feudal Future, hosts Joel Kotkin and Marshall Toplansky are joined by Rev. John L. McCullough, President Emeritus of Church World Service. CWS is a global ecumenical organization specializing in Development and Humanitarian Assistance, Immigration and Refugee Services, Justice and Human Rights. Headquartered in NYC with primary offices in: Bangkok, Belgrade, Buenos Aires, Elkhart (IN), Hanoi, Islamabad, Jakarta, Miami, Nairobi, Phnom Phen, Vientiane, Washington, D.C. CWS is also branded as CROP Hunger Walks, and is a major sponsor of the Ecumenical Advocacy Days. Mission Statement: Church World Service works with partners to eradicate hunger and poverty and to promote peace and justice around the world.

[4:00] Marshall opens up the discussion asking Rev. John what the impact of covid has had on faith-based organizations

[6:45] Joel and Rev. John discuss how developing countries respond to crises without relying on the government

[22:15] Marshall and Rev. John dive into the effect COVID is having on refugees and resettlement across the world

[32:00] Rev. John ends the episode with how religion will reinvent itself through this pandemic

Listen on Apple Podcast

Listen on Stitcher

Listen on Spotify

More podcast episodes & show notes at JoelKotkin.com

Watch Episode on Youtube

Related:

Learn more about the Feudal Future podcast.

Learn more about Marshall Toplansky.

Learn more about Joel Kotkin.

Learn about CWS.

Join the Beyond Feudalism Facebook group.

Read the Beyond Feudalism report.
Learn about Joel's book, The Coming of Neo-Feudalism.

Ask the Experts: Revitalizing California's Business Climate

Chapman University’s Vice President of Research Thomas Piechota hosted this month's event, moderated by Dean Thomas Turk of the Argyros School of Business and Economics. Joel Kotkin, Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University and Marshall Toplansky, Clinical Assistant Professor of Management Science at Chapman University joined the discussion.

If you missed the event, a video of the virtual town hall is below:

Feudal Future Podcast — The Clash: the Power Divide Between the Working Class & the Managerial Elite

On this episode of Feudal Future, hosts Joel Kotkin and Marshall Toplansky are joined by Michael Lind. Michael Lind is a professor of practice at the LBJ School. A graduate of the Plan II Liberal Arts Honors Program and the Law School at The University of Texas with a master's degree in international relations from Yale, Lind has previously taught at Harvard and Johns Hopkins. He has been assistant to the director of the Center for the Study of Foreign Affairs at the U.S. State Department and has been an editor or staff writer for The New Yorker, Harper's, The New Republic and The National Interest. A co-founder of New America, along with Walter Mead, Sherle Schwenninger and Ted Halstead, Lind co-founded New America's American Strategy program, and served as policy director of its economic growth program. He is a former member of the boards of Fairvote and Economists for Peace and Security. (LBJ Texas)

[6:40] Joel asks if national polarization will get worse in the upcoming weeks and how it will affect social platforms as well as the lives of ordinary people.

[9:00] Michael goes into detail how economic control has changed and shifted from the 20th century to today & how the ideas of demonetization plays out in the real economy.

[13:15] Joel and Michael discuss the power of the managerial elite and the historic function of companies and the organization and education of the elite.

[33:45] Joel asks Michael where he sees this clash ending up in the short term and long term.

Listen on Apple Podcast

Listen on Stitcher

Listen on Spotify

More podcast episodes & show notes at JoelKotkin.com

Watch Episode on Youtube

Related:

Learn more about our upcoming event.
Learn more about the Feudal Future podcast.
Learn more about Marshall Toplansky.
Learn more about Joel Kotkin.
Learn about Michael Lind.

Join the Beyond Feudalism Facebook group.

Read the Beyond Feudalism report.
Learn about Joel's book, The Coming of Neo-Feudalism.

Virtual Town Hall: Revitalizing California's Business Climate

You are invited to join Chapman University’s Vice President of Research Thomas Piechota who will host the next Ask the Experts Town Hall on Friday, January 22, from 11 – 12:30 P.M. (PST). The installment this month will be moderated by Dean Thomas Turk of the Argyros School of Business and Economics who will be joined by Joel Kotkin, Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University and Marshall Toplansky, Clinical Assistant Professor of Management Science at Chapman University. Together, Chapman faculty will be joined by local community experts: Lucy Dunn, President and CEO, Orange County Business Council; Tracy Hernandez, CEO, Los Angeles County Business Federation; Jim Wunderman, President and CEO, Bay Area Council; and Rob Lapsley, President, California Business Roundtable.

Alongside Chapman faculty, our distinguished guests will discuss how best California’s business climate can be revitalized to avoid the loss of companies, higher unemployment rates, and poverty. They will also explore how businesses can be key to correcting these problems including encouraging government to listen more to the challenges being faced.

The entire Chapman community (staff, faculty, and students) and the broader community are welcome to join. Register for the webinar here,  or visit the Ask the Experts Website.

For more information visit blogs.chapman.edu/

Guest Experts

Joel Kotkin, Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures, Chapman University

Marshall Toplansky, Clinical Assistant Professor of Management Science at Chapman University

Lucy Dunn, President and CEO, Orange County Business Council

Tracy Hernandez, CEO Los Angeles County Business Federation, Los Angeles

Jim Wunderman, President and CEO, Bay Area Council

Rob Lapsley, President, California Business Roundtable

Virtual Town Hall: Revitalizing California Business Climate

Bloomberg's Case for Moving to Houston, URI 2020 Year in Review Video, and more

Happy new year everyone. Hope you enjoyed the holidays and the recent amazing weather (while staying safe). A lot of you probably had out-of-town family and/or friends visiting. Next time nonlocal friends or family say Houston is too hot, floods too often, or gets too many hurricanes, here's my recommended reaction: politely agree with them that Houston is not a city for the soft or irresilient - they should probably choose somewhere like California. Texas welcomes the tough.

The big item this week is Bloomberg Businessweek's "The Case for Moving to Houston" graphic from a recent cover story on high-tech workers leaving the big expensive coastal cities. Click to enlarge, but note Houston in the upper-left pole position of the best bang for your buck, a combination of high average salaries and low cost of living, reinforcing my ongoing argument that Houston has the highest standard of living among major metros in the US and probably the world as well.

Case for moving to Houston

The article also has a couple of nice excerpts:

"Consider Phyllis Njoroge, who grew up in Massachusetts. After graduating from Tufts University in 2019 with a degree in cognitive and brain science, she started making spreadsheets of places in the U.S. that had a warm climate, were diverse, and had a reasonable cost of living. Houston won out, and she moved there in March"

Having more remote workers means “wages in Texas are going up,” he says. So are housing prices. “You can’t have a $2 million, 2,000-square-foot house in San Francisco and a $200,000 house in Dallas that are basically the same for very long when there are airplanes and internet connections and Zoom.”

Moving on to some smaller items this week:

"I simply say, “no, please don’t be sorry. I love living in Houston. It’s a great place to live and I have a great life there. It’s actually not that place that you might imagine it to be. In fact, it’s one of the country’s most ethnically diverse and progressive cities. My children go to school with kids from all over the world. And the wine and food scene there is great, too.”

Finally, I'd like to end with a great year-end review 1m video our President Charles Blain put together on the Urban Reform Institute - Center for Opportunity Urbanism's work, events, and publications in 2020. Here's to 2021 being even better for our growth and impact!

This piece first appeared at Houston Strategies Blog


Tory Gattis is a Founding Senior Fellow with the Houston-based Urban Reform Institute – A Center for Opportunity Urbanism, and writes the Houston Strategies blog.

2020 Year End Summary: Urban Density and COVID Death Rates

The latest death rates from COVID-19 are displayed by county urban density in Figure 1. Death rates remain at or below the national death rate in counties with urban densities of 5,000 per square mile or below (Figure 2). These counties have low to medium urban population densities characteristic of suburban and exurban areas and account for 85% of the nation’s population (279 million out of a total population of 328 million). All categories of counties with urban densities exceeding 5,000 per square mile have more than their population proportionate share of COVID-19 deaths. Counties without urbanization (fully rural counties) also have higher proportional death rates (Figure 3).

Higher COVID-19 death rates are associated with higher urban densities because of the overcrowding that often occurs in such environments. This leads to higher exposure densities, because the intensity and duration of risky contacts is likely to be greater.

Similar relationships are evident elsewhere, such as in the United Kingdom and Japan.


Wendell Cox is principal of Demographia, an international public policy firm located in the St. Louis metropolitan area. He is a founding senior fellow at the Urban Reform Institute, Houston and a member of the Advisory Board of the Center for Demographics and Policy at Chapman University in Orange, California. He has served as a visiting professor at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers in Paris. His principal interests are economics, poverty alleviation, demographics, urban policy and transport. He is co-author of the annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey and author of Demographia World Urban Areas.

Mayor Tom Bradley appointed him to three terms on the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission (1977-1985) and Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich appointed him to the Amtrak Reform Council, to complete the unexpired term of New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman (1999-2002). He is author of War on the Dream: How Anti-Sprawl Policy Threatens the Quality of Life and Toward More Prosperous Cities: A Framing Essay on Urban Areas, Transport, Planning and the Dimensions of Sustainability.

California Loses 70,000 Residents 2019 to 2020

The Census Bureau has just published its 2020 state population estimates, which indicate that the state that has led growth in the United States for the last 170 years lost 70,000 residents last year. For the first five years of the decade, California had gained 300,000 residents, with a total gain over the period of 1.6 million. Since 2015, California’s population gain plummeted, reaching virtually zero in 2019 and the loss in 2020 (Figure 1). At the same time, the Census Bureau restated California’s 2018 to 2019 population change, which had been shown as a gain of 51,000 last year to a gain of only 147.

This may be California’s first annual population loss since statehood (1850). According to Census Bureau data reported by macrotrends.net, California had gained population in every year since 1900. Earlier annual data was not found.

National Trends

Overall, the national population growth rate has been falling throughout the decade. In 2011, the nation added 0.73% to its population, and fell to 0.35% in 2020. In 2019, the gain was 0.46%. The smaller gain in 2020 is likely attributable to the generally downward trend and smaller international migration flows in the COVID environment.

Over the past year, the South has accounted for 85% of the nation’s growth, adding nearly 1,000,000 residents. The West had 30% of the growth (350,000). The Midwest experienced a modest loss (20,000), while the Northeast lost more than 150,000 residents (Figure 2).

Fastest Gainers

Texas added the largest number of residents in the last year, at 374,000. Florida was second, at 241,000 and Arizona was third at 130,000 (Figure 3). Among the top ten states, six were from the South and the other four from the Intermountain West. The five Pacific Coast states added about 25,000 residents, with an 80,000 gain in Washington and 25,000 in Oregon, which was nearly offset by losses in California, Hawaii and Alaska.

The largest percentage gain was in Idaho, which added 2.11% between 2019 and 2020. Arizona, Nevada and Utah all gained more than 1.40%. Texas ranked 5th, while Florida placed 7th (Figure 4).

Fastest Losers

By far the largest losses were in New York (minus 126,000), Illinois (minus 79,000) and California (minus 70,000). Sixteen states had population losses (Figure 5). New York had the largest percentage loss from 2019 to 2020, at 0.65%. The largest percentage losses were in Illinois, Hawaii and West Virginia, all had losses exceeding 0.55%. California had the 10th largest percentage loss, at 0.18% (Figure 6).

As was the case in 2010, this year’s estimates did not include migration data, unlike the earlier years in the decade.

The 2020 estimates will be superseded by the 2020 Census counts, which will be released in the near future.

The table below shows the 2010 Census as well as the 2019 and 2020 population estimates.


Wendell Cox is principal of Demographia, an international public policy firm located in the St. Louis metropolitan area. He is a founding senior fellow at the Urban Reform Institute, Houston and a member of the Advisory Board of the Center for Demographics and Policy at Chapman University in Orange, California. He has served as a visiting professor at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers in Paris. His principal interests are economics, poverty alleviation, demographics, urban policy and transport. He is co-author of the annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey and author of Demographia World Urban Areas.

Mayor Tom Bradley appointed him to three terms on the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission (1977-1985) and Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich appointed him to the Amtrak Reform Council, to complete the unexpired term of New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman (1999-2002). He is author of War on the Dream: How Anti-Sprawl Policy Threatens the Quality of Life and Toward More Prosperous Cities: A Framing Essay on Urban Areas, Transport, Planning and the Dimensions of Sustainability.

Photograph: Great Seal of the State of California via Wikimedia.

2020 Population Estimates

  2010 Census 2019 Estimate 2020 Estimate 2019-20 # 2019-20 %
United States 309,327,143 328,329,953 329,484,123 1,154,170 0.35%
           
Alabama 4,785,514 4,907,965 4,921,532 13,567 0.28%
Alaska 713,982 733,603 731,158 (2,445) -0.33%
Arizona 6,407,342 7,291,843 7,421,401 129,558 1.78%
Arkansas 2,921,998 3,020,985 3,030,522 9,537 0.32%
California 37,319,550 39,437,610 39,368,078 (69,532) -0.18%
Colorado 5,047,539 5,758,486 5,807,719 49,233 0.85%
Connecticut 3,579,173 3,566,022 3,557,006 (9,016) -0.25%
Delaware 899,647 976,668 986,809 10,141 1.04%
District of Columbia 605,282 708,253 712,816 4,563 0.64%
Florida 18,846,143 21,492,056 21,733,312 241,256 1.12%
Georgia 9,712,209 10,628,020 10,710,017 81,997 0.77%
Hawaii 1,364,004 1,415,615 1,407,006 (8,609) -0.61%
Idaho 1,570,819 1,789,060 1,826,913 37,853 2.12%
Illinois 12,840,545 12,667,017 12,587,530 (79,487) -0.63%
Indiana 6,490,555 6,731,010 6,754,953 23,943 0.36%
Iowa 3,050,819 3,159,596 3,163,561 3,965 0.13%
Kansas 2,858,266 2,912,635 2,913,805 1,170 0.04%
Kentucky 4,348,464 4,472,345 4,477,251 4,906 0.11%
Louisiana 4,544,635 4,658,285 4,645,318 (12,967) -0.28%
Maine 1,327,651 1,345,770 1,350,141 4,371 0.32%
Maryland 5,788,784 6,054,954 6,055,802 848 0.01%
Massachusetts 6,566,440 6,894,883 6,893,574 (1,309) -0.02%
Michigan 9,877,597 9,984,795 9,966,555 (18,240) -0.18%
Minnesota 5,310,934 5,640,053 5,657,342 17,289 0.31%
Mississippi 2,970,615 2,978,227 2,966,786 (11,441) -0.38%
Missouri 5,996,089 6,140,475 6,151,548 11,073 0.18%
Montana 990,730 1,070,123 1,080,577 10,454 0.98%
Nebraska 1,829,591 1,932,571 1,937,552 4,981 0.26%
Nevada 2,702,483 3,090,771 3,138,259 47,488 1.54%
New Hampshire 1,316,807 1,360,783 1,366,275 5,492 0.40%
New Jersey 8,799,451 8,891,258 8,882,371 (8,887) -0.10%
New Mexico 2,064,614 2,099,634 2,106,319 6,685 0.32%
New York 19,399,956 19,463,131 19,336,776 (126,355) -0.65%
North Carolina 9,574,586 10,501,384 10,600,823 99,439 0.95%
North Dakota 674,752 763,724 765,309 1,585 0.21%
Ohio 11,539,449 11,696,507 11,693,217 (3,290) -0.03%
Oklahoma 3,760,014 3,960,676 3,980,783 20,107 0.51%
Oregon 3,837,614 4,216,116 4,241,507 25,391 0.60%
Pennsylvania 12,711,406 12,798,883 12,783,254 (15,629) -0.12%
Rhode Island 1,053,994 1,058,158 1,057,125 (1,033) -0.10%
South Carolina 4,635,846 5,157,702 5,218,040 60,338 1.17%
South Dakota 816,193 887,127 892,717 5,590 0.63%
Tennessee 6,355,518 6,830,325 6,886,834 56,509 0.83%
Texas 25,241,897 28,986,794 29,360,759 373,965 1.29%
Utah 2,775,413 3,203,383 3,249,879 46,496 1.45%
Vermont 625,886 624,046 623,347 (699) -0.11%
Virginia 8,024,004 8,556,642 8,590,563 33,921 0.40%
Washington 6,743,009 7,614,024 7,693,612 79,588 1.05%
West Virginia 1,854,265 1,795,263 1,784,787 (10,476) -0.58%
Wisconsin 5,690,538 5,824,581 5,832,655 8,074 0.14%
Wyoming 564,531 580,116 582,328 2,212 0.38%
Source: US Census Bureau