In 1990 I visited England for work. I stayed in a few hotels in the Manchester area and I remember noticing that, oddly, the phones did not always work. This was before mobile phones existed. In America, when you picked up a landline phone, you always got a dial tone. You dialed, and if you had a correct number, you got through. Not so in England at the time. Occasionally you picked up the phone and it was just dead. Or you dialed, and it didn’t go through. Rattling the cradle didn’t work. Sometimes the phone would just not function, and you’d have to wait a while, and try again. I remember being astonished how that was possible in a modern country in 1990. England was the only and undisputed superpower in the world for centuries, until it faded in the earlier part of the 20th century and got replaced by the United States as the dominant military and economic power. But it could not keep its phone system working properly. I don’t know what the reason was exactly, but I attributed it to lack of properly maintained, modern infrastructure.
Now I live in California. It’s thirty years later, almost 2020. California is one of the largest economies in the world. With a population of 40 million people, it is also the size of a larger country. As Californians, we are proud of the progressiveness of the state and its people. Many of the world’s most prominent companies are based in California. It is the undisputed capital of entrepreneurism in the world. Many Californians live in modern, large and expensive homes. Our emissions standards are some of the highest in the world. We try to take care of our environment. Lots of our energy is derived from renewable sources. We are one of the leaders in wind-generated power.
Yet, in recent weeks, millions of Californians had to deal with power blackouts because, ironically, the wind was blowing. In recent years, the large utility companies had been found responsible for creating the sparks that started wildfires during the fire season due to faulty equipment and infrastructure. The resulting lawsuits have pushed those utility companies to the brink of bankruptcy. To avoid further damage and liability, the utilities have resorted to simply turning off the power in areas of high danger. Millions of people found their homes without power in the last few days. Businesses were shut down. Traffic lights went off. Chaos ensued. Contents of freezers spoiled in homes and grocery stores. Restaurants were closed. Enormous amounts of economic activity didn’t happen, and losses are in the billions.
California is now experiencing third-world conditions, where we cannot rely on the power to be on. This is, of course, far worse than the lack of a dial tone in England in 1990. The utility companies have not been keeping their infrastructure sound. Wind, even high wind, should not cause wildfires all by itself. Powerlines should not fall down and spark fires. Trump made it a campaign promise to sponsor infrastructure development, and so far, he has done nothing, or possibly less than nothing.
We are stagnant in this country. Our roads are crumbling. Our bridges are rusting away. Our airports are reminiscent of dystopian movies. If you don’t believe me, fly into Newark or LaGuardia sometime. We have no high-speed rail system. There is no direct rail connection to some of our major airports, like JFK or LAX.
And our power grid in California no longer works when the wind blows. California’s government is misguided, and it has its priorities confused. As Holman W. Jenkins Jr. puts it so aptly in his Opinion column in the Wall Street Journal of October 30, 2019:
Elites subsidize electric cars for themselves while promoting zoning that forces low-income workers to commute three hours to a job or live in their cars. PG&E can’t keep trees off its power lines, but it can supply exact numbers for how many LGBTQ workers it employs.
