2021 California Governor Recall Elections: Case-Studies and Examples of How to Grow Sustainably
We are not starved for opportunities. We are struggling because our politicians and leaders have forgotten how to Think Big.
Sacramento is not focused on long-term solutions for our problems. Without an immediate focus on the problems, we run the risk of slowly becoming irrelevant.
CASE STUDIES and EXAMPLES
Case Study 1: Water.
Problem: California is running out of water. Whether the problem is man-made or part of global climate change is almost irrelevant. We need to find water, and soon.
Sacramento has ignored the problem for a while. Different stakeholders, like farmers and environmental groups, have driven Sacramento to pick sides.
Way Forward: Understand the details. Agriculture accounts for over 85% of California water usage. We need to figure out the water supply for cities and for agriculture in separate buckets.
Next steps: benchmark current best-in-class technologies for water supply, storage, and conservation.
Invite companies from all over the world to innovate in California. Provide them a market of 40 million people and a huge agriculture industry. Drive the cost of new technologies down to be competitive for home usage (15% of usage).
Example: Seawater desalination is currently being adopted across Israel, the Middle East, and other desert-like areas. We have the Pacific Ocean right next to us. The main issues are high power cost and brine water disposal. Both can be solved, in parallel with the next problem: Renewable power generation.
For agriculture, build more and smaller dams. Start on a Western America and a North American Continent-wide river linking system. We will need to include Canada in the ecosystem because everything can not be solved alone. This is a massive, multi-decade project and will need Washington DC’s support.
This is not new. The entire California system was built on this model. Water is moved from Northern California and from the Colorado River to water-deficient areas in Central Valley and LA. Now we need a bigger vision and partnership.
In the 1950s there was a proposal to bring water from the Columbia River to California. It got shelved because of inter-state disagreements. Time to dust off the files!
While getting more water, we will also build the next generation of low water usage agriculture. Agriculture accounts for more than 85% of California’s consumption. Already, farmers are adopting drip irrigation and other conservation technologies.
Spoiler alert: no US company in Top 5 Desalination Plant companies. Israel is a leader in low water usage agriculture solutions.
Case Study 2: Renewable Energy.
Problem: We have known for a long time that we have an energy shortage problem. The actual issue is that we seem to be caught by surprise!
Way forward for Sacramento: Shortlist the next-gen promising technologies for energy generation, storage, and distribution. The list ncludes solar, hydrogen, tidal waves, nuclear, etc.
There are also generation models like Utility-scale, and Rooftop scale. The ideal model will be a combination.
Example: China understood they had a huge pollution problem. They bet on Renewables 15 years ago. They supported multiple companies in a private-public partnership model. Today, the entire global solar power industry is driven by Solar Cells made mostly in China. They created massive companies, drove the cost of solar power down below hydro and thermal, and created a global boom. Our leaders fought over whether there is an energy shortage, whether there is climate change, whether……
Today, Japan and some companies in the US are working on areas like hydrogen fuel cells, and also energy battery storage technologies. That is the next problem to solve for base-load renewable power. Defense and NASA need to engage with states and individual companies to drive innovation and adoption of new technologies.
Case Study 3: Transportation including fast Trains.
Problem: the world needs a next-generation transportation system that allows for a cleaner environment, reduced traffic jams, and access for all.
Way Forward let’s get cracking on Next-Gen transport systems. Provide seed money to companies. Provide prototype market. Design next-gen trains or people-moving-pods. Build a huge industry. Provide California as a big market. Create even more well-paying jobs while also creating a massive industry.
We have driven away companies like HP, Oracle, and Tesla in the past few years. Whatever anyone thinks of Tesla, they single-handedly launched the first US-based Auto company in 100 years. More remarkable, Tesla did so in California, at a time when almost every manufacturer had abandoned the state. Tesla created well-paying factory floor jobs. Elon Musk, the founder, experimented with and shared some interesting ideas for Transportation with Hyperloop and Tunnels.
In the meantime, Chinese, French and Japanese companies are busy creating massive Next-Gen bullet-train transportation ecosystems.
Case Study 4: Affordable housing.
Problem: Today, affordable housing is a massive issue across California. Most Californians can not afford to buy a house. Home rentals are going up. And with prices going up, the American Dream is even further away now. The state and cities are trying rent control, and tenant-centric policies. These are not helpful in the long term.
The current, non-sustainable solution is to subsidize rentals for people who can not afford to pay, including those on Welfare.
To be fair, Sacramento did launch an ADU law (Additional/auxiliary dwelling unit) law to use existing space better and provide more housing. There has been some uptake on that initiative. But it is bogged down in a bunch of cities. Most homeowners do not want unconstrained development in their cities. Sacramento is also passing a bill to allow for the conversion of single-family homes to duplexes. This will cause traffic jams, and other issues inside existing communities, not designed for heavier density living.
Way Forward: Build next-generation, sustainable cities, connected by efficient transport.
We can create affordable, eco-friendly cities if we connect all of California such that we can travel the entire state in 3 hours. No one will be more than 60 minutes away from a job.
Japan is a great case study. They developed satellite towns all along the country, with fast bullet trains enabling people to find affordable housing further away from Tokyo and surrounding areas.
Think of Las Vegas as an example of a city as a massive job enabler. A huge city in the middle of nowhere was built to serve mostly California visitors. Freeways and airports allow for folks to fly in and out easily. Now Las Vegas has become a global hub.
The entire Middle East has literally sprung up from the desert in the past 40 years.
Most emerging markets are building massive, affordable communities linked to job centers with mass transport.
Case Study 5: Education.
Problem: California Universities are choking. Costs have gone up significantly. So now the Universities are turning away local state youth in favor of higher-paying global students. The middle class now has to pay an arm and a leg. Or take loans that they can not pay off.
Way forward: In the past decades, California created a great University system. As a result, we have lots of jobs in the education sector. Given the high cost, the state does provide preferential admissions and fee waivers to the disadvantaged.
Way Forward: use technology to drive broader participation across the state and world. Universities can get more overall dollars, with lower per-student fees. Students will less across the board. Local state students do not have to suffer or pay crazy amounts to private universities.
Example: we saw an interesting hybrid learning model during Covid. Let’s see how we can create a model that allows for students to engage with each other, while also driving down costs. Private companies like Coursera and Udemy are creating alternate education models. MOOC models are allowing students across the world to learn from the best universities.
Case Study 6: Healthcare.
Problem: Today, we spend the most among developed nations on healthcare. Yet we rank poorly in most health metrics. Think heart health, diabetes, obesity…. Specific to California, a big chunk of state receipts are going towards ever-increasing health costs.
Way Forward: This is an area ripe for disruptive innovation that California, especially Silicon Valley can help with. Already billion-dollar companies that provide innovative solutions are being created.
The government needs to work with industry to lower the underlying cost structure. There is plenty of data about where the money is spent or wasted. New models like Telehealth, having nurse practitioners provide more of the services, automation, etc. are being experimented with. The Government can also help by removing red tape, provide a sensible lawsuit protection framework….
Today the conversation is around ideology. Single Payer vs Private Industry. The state can play the role of an enabler and regulator while allowing innovation. The main problem is the rigid industry structure and costs, not private vs public control.
Case Study 7: Homelessness.
Problem: Homelessness is a growing problem across California. It is a complex problem. There is massive inequality, stress, competition, loneliness, drugs……but the solutions touted are all sound-bites.
For example, there are different groups of homeless:
a) Temporarily homeless: due to natural disasters or folks down on their luck.
b) Folks checking out of the system due to mental health issues.
c) Drug users.
We need to solve these 3 kinds of homelessness separately. Today, California and the US have abandoned people suffering from mental health issues. It is because of either ideology (these people are cheating the system) or expensive healthcare. Prisons and our streets are becoming the alternate solutions.
Affordable housing, a new and lower-cost healthcare system that can provide solutions at low cost, a state that treats healthcare as a right, not a privilege, are all needed to solve this problem.
Case Study 8: Immigration.
Problem: Again, this is a complex issue used by our politicians as a tool to rile up the voter base.
There are mutually opposing needs. It is not a simple solution.
a) Without immigrants, including some illegals currently, California farms won’t survive. Without a low-cost immigrant labor pool, a lot of the service industry will not be able to function.
b) However, no country can afford to lose control of its borders. We don’t allow anyone to walk into our home. The State and country are our home too.
c) Both parties treat immigration and illegal immigration as election-year issues.
There needs to be a sane discussion around California’s needs and how to solve them. There are many models out there.
For example, in the past, the US had special programs to support long-term agricultural worker needs,
Immigration is a Privilege, not a Right. We are a country of immigrants. But we need to figure out who and how many we can support, without breaking the system. Most immigrants I talk to have the same view. We need to discuss the benefits vs problems trade-offs with sanctuary cities or releasing illegals without any means to track them. The other model of treating them as criminals is not the way either! We need a firm but humane way forward, that accounts for our needs.
I can go on and on. There are so many models working all across the globe. We are falling behind in several next-gen infrastructure and social policy areas that require initial Government support.
What we need is a seasoned leadership team that understands how to get alignment, while getting things done. Take a look at the candidates. Make up your mind about who can actually solve the problems, instead of giving sound bites.
Case Study 9: Unions/Pensions.
Problem: I am including this one as a provocative case study to think about.
Like a lot of social issues, unions arouse sympathy or anger. The reactions are ideologically driven and used by all political parties for their narratives.
a) Unions started as a way to protect workers against more powerful employers, who could hire and fire workers at will. The employers underpaid them, because of the unequal power structure.
b) Today, some unions have evolved to becoming job guarantee programs.
c) We need to solve the underlying problems of jobs and job security and adequate pay, with or without formal unions.
d) Unions and other organizations are also huge sources of funds for Wall Street and other funds that deploy money in industry and growth. CALPERS is the largest public pension fund in the country. It funds multiple Private Equity, Venture Capital, Public funds. In that way, the unions and pension funds funnel money back into growing the economy. A lot of folks who criticize unions and pensions have got rich off these organizations!
In the end, we need to get to the real issue. What is the best way to ensure steady and good-paying jobs for a large section of society? How can we ensure that everyone has a strong safety net, instead of wealth concentration in a few hands. If we can not do so, then workers will organize. Let’s focus on the real issue!
I can go on and on. There are so many models working all across the globe. We are falling behind in several next-gen infrastructure and social policy areas that require initial Government support.
What we need is a seasoned leadership team that understands how to get alignment, while getting things done. Take a look at the candidates. Make up your mind about who can actually solve the problems.
It is equally important to not mess up what is working well.
Our tech and entertainment industries are firing on all cylinders. Let’s support them, not weigh them down with regulations. Right now we are moving industry out of the state and country. Think Fabs/Foundries for chips. In many ways, we created the industry. Now it is all gone, including the downstream jobs of packaging, assembly, testing, etc.
To end this part, I have seen a lot of models across the world. By focusing on a few, we can create a massive well-paying jobs ecosystem that does not require everyone to be a software coder. There is a huge downstream effect of ancillary and support job creation. Small businesses, security guards, logistics drivers…the list goes on.
State tax base expands massively.
We can provide better care to the weak and disadvantaged while supporting growth and a sensible taxation/regulatory structure.
A virtuous cycle, instead of the current slow downward spiral.
Let’s Make California Work. For All.
