Jerry is 76 now, no longer the young guy in a hurry who ran the state according to his own style in the 1970s. He admits in a PBS Newshour interview that he appreciates continuity these days, that change for change sake no longer appeals as much as it once did.
It’s nice to see that Jerry has gained a little wisdom with the years, although the same stubborn liberalism remains, in particular his fondness for illegal aliens. California has the fourth-worst unemployment in the nation, but Jerry is pleased with his licenses for illegal alien drivers, surely a magnet for more.
Did his extensive education not include the economic principle of supply and demand, which works efficiently in labor markets??
The interview touched briefly on the topic of Google tech worker buses being harassed by San Franciscans angry about increased rents in the city, which is another example of supply and demand. Even success has its costs — not news in the real world! (See my recent VDARE.com article: Liberal Civil War in San Francisco: Immigrants And Hipsters Attack Tech Workers).
I’ve pulled the interesting part of the interview below:
Considering the long view for California’s future, Gov. Jerry Brown embraces continuity, PBS Newshour, May 9, 2014[. . . ] GOV. JERRY BROWN: So, there’s a lot of change out there, and I’m managing it in a way that I think makes sense to me. But it’s — these are tall hills to climb. But I feel exuberant, excited. And I’m certainly ready to go forward.
JOHN MYERS: Critics, though, say California isn’t going forward, as much as it is stuck. Unemployment remains fourth highest in the nation, and last month Toyota announced it’s moving 3,000 jobs from Southern California to Texas.
Republicans say the state is unfriendly to business. Others say it remains unfriendly to the working poor. Protests in the San Francisco Bay area are frequent and critics see the chartered buses that drive tech workers to their Silicon Valley jobs as a symbol of the growing gap between rich and poor.
What do you make of all of that? Do those protesters have a point?
GOV. JERRY BROWN: They have a point because inequality, the return on assets is better than the return on labor and people’s ability to make salaries. But it also is part of the economy, and part of the prosperity and part of the tax system, so it’s a matter of taking reasonable steps, and I think we’re doing that.
We have raised the minimum wage. We’re giving driver’s licenses to undocumented people. That certainly is going to help. We have the local funding formula which directs significant, billions of dollars to schools to help them cope with low-income families, with non-English-speaking families, with foster care kids, but to try to close the gap. One little state can’t do that. [. . .]
