Not Getting It

Instapundit mentions the problem of economic refugees from Taxachussetts who have ruined New Hampshire, and from California who have ruined just about everywhere.  He quotes a reader: "the newcomers seem to have no clue that the policies they support are the very same ones that ruined the state they fled.”

I am reminded of something from 1980 or so.  My wife and I had just married.  We were eating outside at All American Burger on Wilshire Blvd. in Santa Monica.  Santa Monica had become the new destination for hard left sorts, eager to participate in Tom Hayden and Jane Fonda's Campaign for Economic Democracy takeover of Santa Monica in the 1981 City Council elections.   (I finished next to last in the City Council race.)

At the next table, two trendy young lefties, both apparently fresh arrivals in the Los Angeles basin from somewhere back East, were having a conversation.  It was a seriously predictable conversation; think "herd of independent thinkers."  I even told my wife, very quietly, what the next topic was going to be: Mulholland, the Owens Valley water project, and the corruption of Los Angeles politics in the 1920s.  And sure enough, within 30 seconds, that's where they had gone.  It was astonishing how easy it was to figure out how their minds worked--or rather, how few original thoughts they enjoyed.

But the funny part was when one of them said to the other (and this was obviously a long time ago): "Los Angeles's economy seems to be pretty healthy, in a laissez-faire sort of way, but you know, there's absolutely no provision for public policy planning."  And it was clear that neither of these trendy lefties saw that there might be some connection there.  Imagine that.