Living costs drive 2-tier economy

Why California is what it is — a state with an immense economy but equally immense socioeconomic divisions — is the topic of perpetual academic, media and political debates.

There is one factor, both a cause and an effect, that cannot be debated: California is an enormously expensive place in which to live and work.

And if anything, the relatively high inflation that has plagued the national economy in recent years has exacerbated the angst that Californians were already feeling as they struggled to make ends meet.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s crusade against gasoline refiners, accusing them of price-gouging, exploits that angst by virtue signaling to his constituents that he’s sympathetic to pain in their wallets. However, the state’s high fuel prices are just a tiny fragment of the state’s high cost of living and its corrosive effects.

How high? Insure.com, a website that analyzes insurance costs, recently updated its comprehensive, state-bystate guide to living costs of all kinds, and revealed that it costs 46.8% more to live in California than the national

Phoenix Coalition deserves our backing

average — the third highest behind Hawaii’s 85.5% and 54% in the District of Columbia.

Its high cost of living is the single most important reason why California, despite its world class economy, has the nation’s highest rate of functional poverty, as measured by the U.S. Census Bureau. Its supplemental poverty index is weighted for the cost of living and California’s high costs, especially for housing, drive the state’s ranking.

Moreover, when the nearpoor are added, well over a quarter of Californians are suffering from serious economic stress, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.

High living costs, again particularly for housing, are also a major factor in California’s outflow of population to other states and thus its recent loss of population.

“Since 2015, California has

I support The Davis Phoenix Coalition and their mission of eliminating hate and intolerance in our community.

Though the impetus for their formation was a brutal beating of a gay Davisite, they have worked tirelessly to call out all forms of bigotry (protesting antisemitic graffiti/ banners, murder of unarmed people of color, Muslim travel ban, anti-trans sentiment.) DPC promotes a civic culture that allows all of us to feel safe and welcome.

The anti-trans legislation and invective across the country creates a very frightening and insecure time for gender-expansive and trans kids. In recent weeks, The Phoenix Coalition and their leadership have been unfairly attacked and accused of “preying on vulnerable children.” Yet the truth is the opposite — Rainbow Families and the Davis LGBTQ+ Youth Group (parts of the Phoenix Coalition) provide much needed support to families all over the county raising gender-expansive and trans kids.

R. Burt McNaughton Publisher

Speak

President experienced net losses of over 500,000 adults who cite housing as the primary reason, according to the Current Population Survey,” PPIC fellows

Hans Johnson and Eric McGhee noted in a recent report. “About half of those who leave the state buy a house in their new state, whereas only one-third of those moving to California buy a house.”

California is several million housing units — the exact number is often debated — short of what it needs to house its people, even despite recent population drops.

Despite much ballyhooed efforts at the state level to increase production, the gap between supply and demand remains largely unchanged, thus putting upward pressure on rents and home prices.

According to the World Population Review, California’s average rent, $1,586 a month, is the third-highest in the nation, topped only by Hawaii and the District of Columbia, and also third highest behind those two markets in median home price at $538,500.

High home prices make ownership an impossible dream for millions of

Please join me in standing up for The Davis Phoenix Coalition. We need the courageous work they do in denouncing hate and creating an inclusive community.

Barbara Clutter Davis

Support a democratic Israel

In a letter to the Enterprise, “Davis’ share of weapons to Israel,” the writer parrots one-sided anti-Israel propaganda from the anti-Israel and antisemitic site U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights — a source well known for its contorted view of U.S. foreign aid to Israel. Its twisted logic can be applied to any recipient of U.S. foreign aid, but it persists in a double standard that is applied solely to Israel, the only democracy in the region, and the Jewish people.

For example, Egypt is second to Israel in its receipt of U.S. military aid. It is a dictatorship headed by a general who seized power in a militar y coup. It imprisons its critics for months or even years without trial. The same is true of dozens of other nations who receive in the aggregate billions of dollars in aid without seriously attempting to be part of the company of

The Hon. Joe Biden, The White House, Washington, D.C., 20500; 202-456-1111 (comments), 202-456-1414 (switchboard); email: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact

U.S. Senate Sen. Dianne Feinstein, 331 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C., 20510; 202-224-3841; email: https://www. feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/ e-mail-me

Sen. Alex Padilla, 112 Hart Senate Office

Building, Washington, D.C., 20510; 202224-3553; email: https://www.padilla. senate.gov/contact/contact-form/

House of Representatives

Rep. Mike Thompson, 268 Cannon Office

Building, Washington, D.C., 20515; 202225-3311. District office: 622 Main Street, Suite 106, Woodland, CA 95695; 530-753-5301; email: https:// https:// mikethompsonforms.house.gov/contact/

Governor Gov. Gavin Newsom, State Capitol, Suite 1173, Sacramento, CA 95814; 916-4452841; email: https://govapps.gov.ca.gov/ gov40mail/ democratic nations.

California families, thus explaining why the state has the nation’s second lowest level of families living in homes that they or their families own, 54.6%. New York is the lowest at 53.6%, thanks to New York City’s rentaldominated housing market.

A new study by Moneywise, a website devoted to consumer finance, reveals that first-time home buyers in California would have to cough up the nation’s second highest average down payment, $98,904, topped only by Hawaii’s $110,360.

California’s extremely high housing hurdles not only explain why so many residents are fleeing to other states, but why it’s so difficult for working-class families to build generational wealth via home ownership. It solidifies the state’s two-tier economy — white and Asian Californian majorities in its overclass and Black and Latino Californians dominating the underclass.

Political pontificating about gas prices really misses the point.

— CalMatters is a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s state Capitol works and why it matters. For more stories by Dan Walters, go to Commentary.

The Palestinian Authority is one of those purported government recipients of military aid. The writer also neglects to mention that a significant portion of U.S. aid to Israel supports the missile defense system known as the Iron Dome. Israel was the object of more than 4,000 missiles fired by Hamas from Gaza in the last major attack.

Some Israelis were killed, but others were saved by interception of these missiles through US support. Israel now faces missiles from both Hamas in the South and Hezbollah in the North — two terrorist organizations dedicated to its destruction.

To be sure, Israel is not perfect. Neither is this country nor any other that purports to govern itself democratically. Israel is in a transformative time for the structure and operation of its government — the same is true of many other US allies in the Middle East and throughout the world who receive monetary support from our taxpayer’s dollars.

But to suggest that military aid to Israel should be cut off or redirected is oblivious to the facts and the arithmetic of US foreign aid policy.

Barry M. Klein Davis