Why would anyone live in California?

OPINION:

Most of us learned in 2nd grade that the first rule for getting out of a deep hole is to stop digging. But California politicians — and many voters in the state — never learned that lesson.

The most expensive state for living in the continental United States is intent on becoming even more costly over the next couple of years.

Walk into a grocery store in Los Angeles and you’ll find eggs cost 50 percent more than they do near me in the (expensive) Washington, D.C. area. This eggs-treme price shock comes courtesy of a law banning the sale of “non-humane” eggs. For the state with the highest poverty rate, you would expect policies to keep food prices in control — not artificially inflate them.

Last fall, voters approved Proposition 12, which mandates only costlier “cage-free” or “free-range” eggs be sold in the state. Conventionally raised pork will also be banned from grocery stores. Proponents of the law, including the animal liberation crowd, failed to inform voters of the game plan. Specifically, raise the cost of production and consumer prices will spike. The prices will then dissuade people from buying bacon and sausage, which reduces the need for farm animals (the new fake pork is even more expensive, but that’s a story for another day).

Along with squeezing consumers, these laws have a predictably negative effect on California farmers. A study from Purdue University found the number of egg-laying hens in the state has dropped by 35 percent. But by banning the sale in California — not just the production — of common agricultural products, it forces production mandates on farmers who live in other states. 

That’s not the only instance of “creeping California.” If you visit the state, you’ll notice that everything from parking garages to airport jet ways carry a cancer and birth defects warning when retrieving your car or boarding a plane.

The labels are required under Proposition 65, passed in 1986 under the guise of providing safe drinking water. In short, the measure requires businesses to post a warning on products or areas that may expose people to chemicals that in sufficient quantities or exposure could statistically cause cancer or reproductive harm. In reality, the bar is set so low that just about everything has a warning label. Christmas tree lights, fishing rods (there is lead in the reels) — you name it. 

Even worse, the measure can be enforced by private lawsuits. A cottage industry of lawyers that test consumer products and file lawsuits against companies that sell offending products without warning labels has popped up as a result. That includes people who may have never even set foot in California but who sell online in the state. That has driven some companies to slap a warning label on all of their products nationwide to offset the hassle of producing different packages for California.

Instead of fixing this “chicken little” law, the California legislature has delved into further nitpicking businesses and personal choices. The legislature notoriously banned plastic straws last year, supposedly to fight pollution. This year San Francisco banned plastic water bottles from being sold on city property, including the international airport. 

These laws amount to petty “virtue signaling.” Regarding the plastic waste that is floating in the Pacific, National Geographic indicates that, “It’s not all bottles and straws — the patch is mostly abandoned fishing gear.” A recent study finds that around 90 percent of plastic waste discharged by rivers — a major source of floating waste — comes from 10 rivers in Asia and Africa. China’s Yangtze river pours 1.5 million metric tons into the Yellow Sea. Coincidently, the state’s largest recycling center, shuttered operations last month making the straw ban inconsequential. The reason given was the new higher wage rates dictated by the state legislature. 

But the legislature never sleeps. The state is now on the cusp of banning the sale of natural fur clothing. The alternative to real fur is fake fur — which is made from plastic. When cleaned the fake fur leaches plastic microfibers into the water supply and is consumed by fish. Want some microfibers with your sushi? 

Now that California is getting into policing what people can wear, it’s likely that proponents of the fur ban, including the whack jobs at PETA, will ratchet up their already announced demands for sales bans on wool and leather, and you can soon expect hearings on the abuse suffered by silkworms. 

These trivialities come as the state is facing a real crisis of human health. Homeless people who can’t afford legislated sky-high housing costs are leaving pounds of human feces on city streets which eventually wash into the sewer systems. The impact on the water supply is yet to be quantified. According to EPA analysis, fecal bacteria is a leading contaminant in many municipal water systems. But hey, you can always get a drink from a bottle of purified water. Except at the San Francisco airport. 

Some residents of the Golden State are realizing that this unserious approach to policymaking is making the state unlivable. In 2018, 156,000 Californians who could afford to leave for cleaner and more affordable pastures crossed the state line — following a trend of net migration loss since 2014. 

These state developments should be a clue to anyone with a vote to curb their fantasy agenda. Instead, they are doubling down on policies with unintended consequences. Economist Herb Stein famously observed, “If something cannot go on forever it will stop.” The only question is: When? 

• Richard Berman is the president of Berman and Co., a public relations firm in Washington, D.C.