the editor talks with you

We used to like California. One of our most memorable vacations was driving our kids up the coast from LA to San Francisco seeing newspaper friends along the way. It was truly an adventure. We considered moving to California, then the opportunity to come home to South Carolina arrived. I’m glad we came here. What California politicians are doing to their people is alarming, It could happen to the rest of us if the Green New Deal lunatics get control of Washington. They already want to ban our plastic grocery bags. Next they will want our plastic straws and water bottles. San Francisco International Airport has banned plastic water bottles but not sugary drinks in plastic bottles. In other words, it’s OK to run up your sugar intake but not plain water that’s better for you. This is the brainless nonsense you would expect in the old Soviet Union, not here.

Other things are even worse, California businessman and author Andy Kellser writes in one of the few sensible daily newspapers left, The Wall Street Journal. Next year, California will require solar panels on all new homes. This adds $8,400 to the cost of already expensive homes. With a 1.4 million housing shortage, that’s a $12 billion unfunded mandate. The housing shortage may be solved with another law. A Senate bill will let developers ignore local zoning laws. Within half a mile of train or subway station they can build high density apartment buildings. One of physics’ basic laws is that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Some officials may feel forced to close rail and subway stations in their towns. A well-intentioned law could backfire.

Another proposal will turn temporary workers into employees entitled to full benefits and a $12 minimum wage. This means the cost of rides, deliveries, hair stylists and manicurists will cost you more. The bill is an outrage as most of these are temporary workers. Delivery companies have found that half of delivery workers quit after 80 days and about 45% work less than 9 hours a week. California is trying to fix a non-existent problem, kill a ride-sharing innovation and cripple the incomes of the workers they say they want to help. There’s more. California has no measurable legal limit for driving while stoned. Hungry? Take your dog to dinner. Restaurants can’t refuse to serve you. Starbucks is rolling out sippy lids, like toddlers’ sippy cups, to replace plastic straws. Iced coffee dribbling down your shirt works wonders for your appearance. Taxes have 50% top margins and electricity rates make ours look like bargains.

What are they doing about streets littered with human feces, comatose drunks and drug addicts, bottles and needles? Actually they are doing something. San Francisco alone spends $30 million a year to clean it up. The state of the streets cost millions in tourist bucks. Just don’t smuggle a disposable water bottle into the airport. They’ll catch you. Be glad you live in Lexington County – until the lunatics take over.

Next: Gypsy came home

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