West Coast-ification Is Killing America
Save your kids from a world where the government picks winners and losers.
Alright, picture this: Bed Bath & Beyond’s making a comeback, but they’re giving California a hard pass. Why? It’s too expensive to do business there.
You’ve probably heard me discuss “West Coastification,” where government rules and red tape strangle businesses and begin to creep across the country. Bed Bath & Beyond’s CEO, Marcus Lemonis, laid out what it looks like from a business standpoint:
Crazy insurance costs, unnecessary packaging labels, warning labels on everything, and employee mandates that make your head spin.
Buildings in California display signs warning against eating them due to carcinogens. I mean, come on, who’s chowing down on drywall? California’s still bragging about being the fourth-largest economy, but its policies are sucking the life out of it. Worse, California’s rules on cars, emissions, manufacturing, and even cosmetics impact every other state. Such is life with interstate commerce and a very big country. California’s rules become North Carolina’s rules, purely because of their market power.
We’ve got to stop this overreach. It has a real negative impact on our kids’ futures.
Ratcheting Up The Problem
The real villain here is something called the “ratchet effect.” It’s when the government becomes more involved in everyday life during a crisis—such as COVID—and doesn’t retreat. It’s a one-way deal where control is ratcheted up every time.
Those COVID PPP loans? They propped up failing companies, delaying the shakeout and culling of the herd that sparks real innovation. Intel grabbing $7.5 billion from the CHIPS Act? Now CEO Pat Gelsinger admits subsidies just let sloppy firms coast through life being subpar.
Electric vehicles? There were billions in handouts to the sector, yet Ford is losing $132,000 per EV sold. It’s a rigged game cloaked as progress that distorts prices, kills competition, and your family gets stuck with the tab.
The Subsidy Scam, Goodfellas Style
The CHIPS Act is chucking $52 billion at Big Tech. Basically a big ol’ bag of goodies for their industry. Once the government’s in, it’s like Paulie from Goodfellas showing up every week for his cut—fire, flood, doesn’t matter, you pay.
Intel’s chip plants are running late, over budget, and heavily reliant on foreign workers through H-1B visas. Meanwhile, Taiwan’s TSMC pumps out top-notch chips without the same crutch. EVs are no better. They need subsidies to puff up demand, but if the rug is pulled… they’ll crash.
California’s housing mess is the same deal. Regulations block new homes and send prices through the roof. CA Governor Newsom admits it’s a problem, but just shrugs it off. Smarmy in everything he does.
Families get screwed over by all this in ways that are just discreet enough for them not to dwell on it. The cost of eggs and milk is how most people judge the economy.
Both sides are in on it—Democrats with welfare traps that hook people on handouts, and MAGA Republicans with tariffs that hike grocery bills.
It’s a lose-lose for us regular folks. I’m teaching my son that the free market, not government “help,” is what builds real wealth.
You should, too. This is important. Ask your kids: What do you think about someone picking winners and losers in a contest?
Get them thinking now about this question. It may feel trivial in their early years, but the meaning will become clear as they come of age. This West Coast rot of overregulation, bailouts, and subsidies is spreading like wildfire, choking off the American dream. It’s not just Bed Bath & Beyond bailing on California. It’s a system that punishes hard work and rewards connected cronies.
Our kids deserve a shot at a world where grit and ideas win. No one should choose winners and losers.