Positive Liberty

The Sacramento Bee’s Dan Walters gets it exactly right when discussing the Public Policy Institute of California’s new study which questions other studies suggesting California is hostile to business:

[T]he relocation of jobs from California to other states is only one piece of the puzzle. There are no measures of jobs not created by employers, much less measures of why they may not be created. Thus, no one really knows whether, for instance, boosting the minimum wage would have a substantial negative effect, as business opponents contend. Nor is there any definitive research on what factors may positively influence job-creating investment.

Or, to paraphrase Bobby Kennedy, a good economist must not just look at what is, and ask why, but look at what might be, and ask why not? Californians are so extremely wealthy that they are willing and able to pay to live in hyperregulated environments like San Francisco and Santa Monica—where prices on everything from homes to consumer goods are needlessly driven up to serve the agendas of the demagogues whom it delighteth the economically illiterate to honor. But what could we have, and what could we be, if it weren’t for the stifling interference of the government?

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