Victor Hanson wrote a commentary entitled Two Californias back in December that discusses the social and economic state of the California Central Valley.
Many of the rural trailer-house compounds I saw appear to the naked eye no different from what I have seen in the Third World. There is a Caribbean look to the junked cars, electric wires crisscrossing between various outbuildings, plastic tarps substituting for replacement shingles, lean-tos cobbled together as auxiliary housing, pit bulls unleashed, and geese, goats, and chickens roaming around the yards. The public hears about all sorts of tough California regulations that stymie it works wraps business — rigid zoning laws, strict building codes, constant inspections — but apparently none of that applies out here.
This article illustrates so well some of the downfalls of our current government policies. While conservation, environmental protection, welfare, education and health care are all wonderful things, shortsighted, underfunded laws can exacerbate or even cause the problems they are intended to fix.