Californians will elect a new governor to replace Gavin Newsom later this year and the upcoming primary has become a wildly unpredictable affair since two of the Democrats dropped out of the crowded race.
For some valuable insight into this contest, I recommend Susan Zakin’s piece, “The Mole,” which profiles billionaire Tom Steyer and the other remaining candidates contending for the job.
Steyer presents us with an odd dilemma. Is there such a thing as a good billionaire? We’ve become accustomed to the notion that some ultra-rich people devote substantial portions of their wealth to philanthropic purposes, but what about a guy who is trying to buy his way into office in order, he says, to do good?
During our lifetimes, the wealth disparity between rich and poor has grown to such an extreme that these two classes might as well be living on separate planets. (And maybe, if some predictions come true, someday they will.)
Meanwhile, the much-vaunted “middle class,” which was supposedly one benefit of democracy’s regulation of unfettered capitalism, has virtually disappeared.
Today’s youth who have grown up in families at that formerly middle class level are struggling to ever be able to own a home or even afford to raise kids. They fear dropping below the poverty line in an unwelcoming job market. Many question whether a college education is worth the debt that inevitably accompanies it.
These are the bread and butter issues Steyer or whoever is California’s next governor will have to confront.
We know billionaires try to buy elections and sometimes they win. We know they're good at wrecking things. But can they ever do something that helps the rest of us?
That is the trillion-dollar question.
HEADLINES:
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The rising cost of fertilizer and fuel prices is pushing some farmers to the brink (NPR)
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Something Is Happening to America’s Moral Code (Atlantic)
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Democrats look to rein in Trump’s war powers, this time on Cuba (Reuters)
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The Mole (Journal of the Plague Years)
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