Next California May Be a Class Struggle
Granted, your special report “The Next California” (Sept. 12) related to the entire state, not any one region. It minimizes, however, the reality of what is happening in Los Angeles County today on a socioeconomic level.
Los Angeles County, a middle-class bastion for over 50 years, is undergoing a profound social shock, with apparently no end in sight. Assume that there are roughly 6 million truly middle-class residents living here. There also appear to be about 3 million truly low-income or poor immigrants who have come to the county in the past 15 years.
These 3 million struggling immigrants have impacted the long-prevailing middle-class culture in the county. Their race or skin color is not nearly as important to the middle class as their economic status. Perhaps another 1 million or more poor immigrants may arrive in the county before the end of the decade. Do the math. With the county virtually bankrupt already, what happens then?
America may be a land of immigrants, but Los Angeles County is proof that you cannot import massive poverty without lowering the middle-class standard of living. Every other American city should learn a lesson from Los Angeles County. They may not care about the issue yet, but they will.
KENNETH MOSCARET
Pasadena
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After all the nicely done articles and analysis, on the last column of the last page, highlighted in a blue box, is the “Action File: 10 Steps to a Better Future.”
They are, in a nutshell: Improve schools and roads, cut government and regulations, control crime and immigration, develop industries and trade.
This is exactly what the new Republican Congress is trying to do.
Nowhere in the list of steps to a better future does it say: Deficit spend, redistribute wealth, raise taxes, save the IRS, enforce quotas or graduate more lawyers.
As a powerful voice, The Times should be trumpeting the value of the 10 steps and exposing the failure of the last 30 years of social and economic policy in every issue.
FRANK EVERETT
Laguna Beach
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