New York, California compete as disaster tourism destinations for economists

Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the “first partner” of California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), is under fire for stating that she takes her children to conservative and Republican states so that they can see misogyny and racism firsthand.

Putting aside her hellscape phantasm, California may be a draw for a different group: curious economists in the mood for disaster tourism.

Just as people travel to Hawaii to see volcanic explosions in real time, they can visit California to see economic implosions. California is a laboratory for students to see what happens when you ignore basic economic principles outside of the classroom.

California is now the leader in the economic race to the bottom, as its politicians drain away what remains of decades of accumulated social capital, revenue and residents from their state.

Other blue states, including Washington and now also Virginia, are following suit, embracing disastrous policies such as soaring taxes, rent-controls and wage increases. The rise in minimum wages is a case in point. Democratic politicians from New York to California are pushing for a $30 minimum hourly wage for workers. Newsom, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, and Democratic legislators in California herald their mandatory increases as providing a “living wage” for workers. In Los Angeles, a law requires hourly wages in the hotel and airport industries to rise by $2.50 each year until they reach $30 in 2028.

There is no question that workers are struggling with the high cost of living in California. But blindly raising taxes and minimum wages will exacerbate these problems, not eliminate them. 

A recent report by researchers at the University of California-Santa Cruz found evidence of precisely what many economists had warned about in........

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