Let’s talk population trends. Many readers are familiar with the arresting Golden State statistics cited by a Wall Street Journal article in March:
From the mid-1980s to 2005, California’s population grew by 10 million, while Medicaid recipients soared by seven million; tax filers paying income taxes rose by just 150,000; and the prison population swelled by 115,000.
The net gain in tax filers includes the author: I was added as a tax-paying filer to the California income tax rolls in 2004. Apparently there are another 149,999 of us, and I’m thinking we need a T-shirt. (And yes, alert readers, I understand that this was a net gain, reflecting both additions to and subtractions from the tax rolls over time. Just having some fun with these sad little numbers.)
Ponder that, my friends. And you wonder what happened to the middle class in this country?