I hate to delve into this controversial area in such a throwaway story -- but... The cost of labor (and living) in this country (California in particular), is

I hate to delve into this controversial area in such a throwaway story -- but... The cost of labor (and living) in this country (California in particular), is making everything terrible. And at the root of it, it's driven by people with good intentions piling on restrictive regulation after restrictive regulation about housing, safety, liability, etc. Everything that you might choose to complain about stems from the high cost of employing anyone -- and related to that (I genuinely lament), how much it costs to barely live around here. BART and buses suck? It's because we cannot hire enough station agents, police officers, maintenance staff, etc to properly man the system. Your commute sucks? Because you have to live so far away to afford anything reasonable in rent or mortgage. Restaurants suck? It's because again, labor is expensive, land is artificially expensive because of restricted supply. Pizza sucks? It's because you can't open a pizza place (except staffed by underpaid immigrants) at any reasonable cost, and instead have to resort to robots that can't get a crust right. This is a major problem -- our country is not getting so much older like some countries, yet our costs are in runaway mode. Something is wrong with this picture.