To the editor: I doubt the Chapman University researchers whose gloomy report on the California economy Joel Kotkin writes about in an op-ed article have spent much time on our blue-collar streets or talking to the business owners there. They might be told if you can’t find a job (or start a business like a food truck) in California, you can’t do it anywhere.
The small manufacturers for which I worked and sold goods for 40 years in Southern California didn’t whine about regulations or social issues. They were more worried about raw material prices and delivery and how to grow their businesses. They didn’t have federal subsidies like Tesla, nor did they fret about shareholder battles over fattening quarterly profits as Boeing and others who largely left California have.
The Chapman literati should climb down from their heights and pick up some of their trash as they go.
Drew Irby, Lincoln, Calif.
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To the editor: Wait — what?
Did this article just state, “Over the last decade… the average annual pay for those government jobs was almost double that of private sector jobs”?
This sounds horribly unfair to the average taxpaying private-sector worker. Sounds like something The Times might want to investigate.
Chris Hordan, Hermosa Beach
