Have you ever met anyone who believes there simply aren’t enough regulations to make life run smoothly?  If not, you apparently have never chatted with a California lawmaker.  

In my state of origin, they continue to impose draconian regulations of every kind, because they must believe that this is why there is an outward population flow: not enough crazy regulations.  

Andy Kessler laments this in the Wall Street Journal:

First they came for our plastic grocery bags. Then they came for our plastic straws. Now they’ve come for our plastic water bottles at SFO. Yes, you read that right. Starting Tuesday, the sale of plastic water bottles will be banned at San Francisco International Airport, one of the few places they actually make sense. California has many dumb laws and statutes and bans, but this one is especially brainless—spurred by futile self-righteousness.

After running late for your flight after a 30-minute security line only to have TSA confiscate your Fiji water bottle, you’ll now have to stop at a crowded water fountain to fill your own metal flask. Or buy an overpriced glass or aluminum bottle at the concession stand, paying another 10 cents for a bag. And your teeth will chatter if you drink through a paper straw. Of course you could risk dehydration instead: Men lose up to a half-gallon of water during a 10-hour flight. Oddly, you can still buy sugary drinks in plastic bottles at SFO; only healthy, calorie-free water is banned in plastic. You can’t make this stuff up.

He goes on to document the myriad of other regulations that will be afflicting Californians in the near future.  For example, the California Building Standards Commission will soon require solar panels on every new home, adding $8,400 to the average cost of the already astronomical home prices. 

To combat the exacerbated housing crisis, the government masterminds gave builders an exemption from local zoning laws within half a mile of train or subway stations and some bus stops. Senate Bill 50 would allow five-story buildings and large parking structures. “So here’s what may happen,” Kessler postulates.  “Many towns will preserve local zoning pre-emptively by closing their train stations. Lose-lose situation.”

Lose-lose is perhaps the best way to describe all of the so-called solutions these legislators propose.   Here’s another. Assembly Bill 5 “would reclassify ‘gig economy’ workers as employees, entitled to full benefits and a $12 minimum wage. This means the cost of rides, deliveries and even manicures would go up, up, up.”

Regrettably, there is so much more.

Proposition 64, passed in 2016, allows Californians to grow six pot plants at home. Why not seven? And there is still no measurable legal limit for driving while stoned. When hungry, you can bring your dog to restaurants. Since 2015 no one can stop you. My son worked at a nice restaurant and was told that the only thing he was allowed to ask was “Can I do anything for your service dog?” Keep your poodles away from my noodles. Meanwhile, Starbucks is rolling out sippy lids, like toddlers’ sippy cups, to replace plastic straws. Iced coffee dribbled down your shirt can certainly be humiliating.

Earlier, I described California as my “state of origin,” for a reason. I was part of the “great migration” out of California precisely because of these types of onerous rules.  After raising a family in California, my wife and I (along with our dogs) pulled up our stakes and moved to the great state of Texas. 

If regulations like this don’t stop being afflicted on Californians, they won’t have to worry about the housing crisis, because no one will want to live there.

Think I’m exaggerating? One of the most frequently Googled questions from the state of California in 2018 was “Should I move out?”

The answer for our family was yes, and we couldn’t be happier.  California politicians need to realize that their so-called utopian society is making everyone leave in droves.

Hat Tip: Wall Street Journal

Image Credit: NeedPix

About The Author

Mark was a co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots, and served as the national coordinator. He left the organization to work more broadly on expanding the self-governance movement beyond the partisan divide. Mark appears regularly on television in outlets as diverse as MSNBC, ABC, NBC, Fox News, CNN, Bloomberg, Fox Business and the BBC. He’s highly sought after for the tea party perspective from print and electronic media outlets, from the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, L.A. Times, Washington Examiner, Politico and the The Hill. Mark blogs at MarkMeckler.com, and his opinion editorials regularly run in many of the leading political newspapers both on and offline. Mark has a BA in English from San Diego State University and graduated with honors from University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law in 1988. He practiced real estate and business law for almost a decade. For the last eleven years of his legal career he specialized in Internet advertising law. When not fighting for the future of our nation, Mark is an avid horseman, and lives in rural northern California with his wife Patty and two children.

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