The author also contends the “elites” live in the lap of unbridled luxury while everyone else lives in “squalor”.
CA has over 7 million single family dwellings. 6.5 million of those are middle class priced under $1mil, and 5 million of those are priced under $500K.
And those folks are not living in squalor.
His point is the middle class, specifically in CA has been dwindling for decades. Most can no longer afford the punitive taxes, punishing regulation$ etc, or those obscenely over-priced cracker box track homes on tiny lots. This isn’t even debatable.
That’s why California’s low wage illegal servant class of millions fit right in and are able to cope...handouts, multiple occupants to homes etc...
I agree the author is guilty of hyperbole using the word squalor, but I bought one of those "middle class priced" California homes that I turned around and sold at a loss a few years later after my neighborhood became increasingly trashed by crime, owner neglect, good houses turned into drug houses, ect.
What can you get for $500K in California? And without a 2 hour commute into a major city for work?