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Wasn't Prop 13 the baby of everyone's favorite dreamy Democratic California governor, Ronald Reagan? And weren't the Enron rolling blackouts specifically due to

Wasn't Prop 13 the baby of everyone's favorite dreamy Democratic California governor, Ronald Reagan? And weren't the Enron rolling blackouts specifically due to giving Enron too much "protection" from the government? That's not to say California isn't also overflowing with bad liberal ideas -- Prop 47 and corporate gender quotas spring to mind -- but the madness seems to be a result of back-and-forth escalation rather than monopoly. If back-and-forth escalation is truly to blame, it doesn't bode well for the USA as a whole, because we certainly seem to be headed down that road.

chimeracoder 6y ago
> everyone's favorite dreamy Democratic California governor, Ronald Regan? Reagan switched parties before he was elected. He was elected as a Republican, not a Democrat.
- jjoonathan 6y ago
  I know, I was being facetious. I probably could have added scare quotes.
jeffbee 6y ago
Prop. 13 was written by a lobbyist for the Los Angeles Apartment Owners' Association and passed during the administration of Jerry Brown, who had been elected 4 years before it passed, and was governor for 4 years after.
- jjoonathan 6y ago
  Right, there's a reason why I used the somewhat ambiguous term "baby." Reagan wasn't the one to get it passed, but from what I understand he was heavily involved in promoting it. In any case, it's a conservative proposal, which I take as evidence towards "escalating-back-and-forth is bad" as opposed to "monopoly is bad." Reagan's involvement is a fun side note.
  - NotSammyHagar 6y ago
    I didn't find it clever to describe it the way you did up above, but I didn't have all that context. It was just confusing or misleading. Would be better to just say it strongly supported by republican Reagan..., passed by voters or supported by dems too if appropriate.
- bosswipe 6y ago
  It was the product of the same late 70s "taxpayers revolt" that produced Reagan.
  - jeffbee 6y ago
    Do you mean that gave us Reagan as President? Reagan was elected Governor of California in 1966.
    - bosswipe 6y ago
      Yes. I don't think this is controversial. I quickly found several Reagan-friendly sources that make the same claim: https://www.cato.org/blog/know-libertarian-history-great-tax-revolt-1970s https://www.cato.org/blog/know-libertarian-history-great-tax... https://www.hoover.org/research/tax-revolt-turns-20 https://www.hoover.org/research/tax-revolt-turns-20 https://www.hjta.org/california-commentary/after-all-these-years-liberals-are-still-wrong-about-proposition-13/ https://www.hjta.org/california-commentary/after-all-these-y...
dfabulich 6y ago
Ronald Reagan was a Republican. (But maybe you were being sarcastic? If you were joking, I don't get it.)
mleo 6y ago
Prop 13 was passed by California voters directly, so a little difficult to pin it on a specific administration or party. While there have been some amendments, the will to change it and make a compelling case to do so can be held against administrations and ruling parties.
legitster 6y ago
You'd generally hope in the back and forth that what you are left with is better laws on average, over time. But even stuff like the high-speed rail was just so poorly managed that you question if the state has the capacity to even do anything.
- jjoonathan 6y ago
  I think the usual back-and-forth does converge on better policy, but feedback systems from an engineering perspective are notorious for having stable and unstable regimes. If you crank the gain or introduce too much delay, your stabilizing control system turns into an oscillator, slamming against the system's extremes rather than settling down at a compromise. It's not an encouraging analogy.

chimeracoder 6y ago

> everyone's favorite dreamy Democratic California governor, Ronald Regan? Reagan switched parties before he was elected. He was elected as a Republican, not a Democrat.

jjoonathan 6y ago
I know, I was being facetious. I probably could have added scare quotes.

jeffbee 6y ago

Prop. 13 was written by a lobbyist for the Los Angeles Apartment Owners' Association and passed during the administration of Jerry Brown, who had been elected 4 years before it passed, and was governor for 4 years after.

jjoonathan 6y ago
Right, there's a reason why I used the somewhat ambiguous term "baby." Reagan wasn't the one to get it passed, but from what I understand he was heavily involved in promoting it. In any case, it's a conservative proposal, which I take as evidence towards "escalating-back-and-forth is bad" as opposed to "monopoly is bad." Reagan's involvement is a fun side note.
- NotSammyHagar 6y ago
  I didn't find it clever to describe it the way you did up above, but I didn't have all that context. It was just confusing or misleading. Would be better to just say it strongly supported by republican Reagan..., passed by voters or supported by dems too if appropriate.
bosswipe 6y ago
It was the product of the same late 70s "taxpayers revolt" that produced Reagan.
- jeffbee 6y ago
  Do you mean that gave us Reagan as President? Reagan was elected Governor of California in 1966.
  - bosswipe 6y ago
    Yes. I don't think this is controversial. I quickly found several Reagan-friendly sources that make the same claim: https://www.cato.org/blog/know-libertarian-history-great-tax-revolt-1970s https://www.cato.org/blog/know-libertarian-history-great-tax... https://www.hoover.org/research/tax-revolt-turns-20 https://www.hoover.org/research/tax-revolt-turns-20 https://www.hjta.org/california-commentary/after-all-these-years-liberals-are-still-wrong-about-proposition-13/ https://www.hjta.org/california-commentary/after-all-these-y...

dfabulich 6y ago

Ronald Reagan was a Republican. (But maybe you were being sarcastic? If you were joking, I don't get it.)

mleo 6y ago

Prop 13 was passed by California voters directly, so a little difficult to pin it on a specific administration or party. While there have been some amendments, the will to change it and make a compelling case to do so can be held against administrations and ruling parties.

legitster 6y ago

You'd generally hope in the back and forth that what you are left with is better laws on average, over time. But even stuff like the high-speed rail was just so poorly managed that you question if the state has the capacity to even do anything.

jjoonathan 6y ago
I think the usual back-and-forth does converge on better policy, but feedback systems from an engineering perspective are notorious for having stable and unstable regimes. If you crank the gain or introduce too much delay, your stabilizing control system turns into an oscillator, slamming against the system's extremes rather than settling down at a compromise. It's not an encouraging analogy.