$30 minimum wage now declared “unaffordable” in California.

Photo below - 13,000 homes were destroyed in the January 2025 wildfires. Only a dozen have been rebuilt. Are delays like this why Los Angeles has the worst housing affordability in America?

I can’t recite the complete history of California’s minimum wage hikes. Recent numbers have been $15 . . . 18 . . . 21? As of this morning $30 is no longer enough. (See link below).

I’m not disputing the math. There are no affordable/vacant apartments in Los Angeles. A big Mac meal deal can cost $20. Regular gas cost $5.50 a gallon last weekend – today it’s reportedly 15% higher due to the escalating middle east conflict. California Income tax rates go as high as 13%. Don’t ask about property taxes. If you actually own a home - even a 1,200 SF starter home (cost - $800K-$1 million) you are considered filthy rich by the half of Californians who have lost all hope of ever buying one of their own.

Back to the $30 an hour inadequate minimum wage. That’s $60,000 a year. Yesterday a new 2028 presidential contender (Senator Chris Van Hollen) turbocharged his campaign by proposing no federal income tax on incomes below $42K (individual filers). That’s 2/3rds of the $60,000 minimum wage California considers impossible to live on. Will Hollen’s proposal attract votes, or does it deserve laughs? Maybe the $42,000 income tax cutoff only plays in red/purple states where $42,000 is still a living wage? Any democrat will win California's electoral votes, whether their name is Newsom, Hollen, Harris, or AOC.

If California went from $15 min wage to $30 to whatever’s next in 2 shakes of a lamb's tail, it should be clear that inflation is the problem, not wages. When the minimum wage soars past $30, it again raises the cost of groceries, department store purchases, uber rides, restaurants and hotels.

Los Angeles just announced 4 new individual taxes/fees on hotel rooms, in order to capitalize on visitors holding 2026 World Cup tickets. There is an ocean of California taxing and spending as far as the eye can see. (second link below).

California’s biggest problem hasn’t changed in forever. It’s almost impossible to build new homes anywhere. Restrictive zoning. Neighbors objecting to loss of views or greenspace. Inability to provide a parking spot for every apartment. Permits and reviews and fees by a dozen state, county, and municipal agencies. Nearly half a million people work for LA city, county, or the State of California. Taxes and fees are how they get fed.

13,000 Los Angeles homes were lost in the January 2025 wildfires. Less than a dozen have been rebuilt since. (see link at bottom). One home in a thousand. Let that sink in for a moment. And these are vacant burned-out lots, not somebody’s scenic view about to be despoiled. Possibly these lucky dozen homeowners are hooked up with politicians and bureaucrats? If there’s any bribe money involved which hustles these permits and construction along, I just hope it’s being spent in-state, on residents who can’t live on $30 an hour.

I’m just sayin’ . . .

‘Utterly unaffordable’: $30 hotel worker minimum wage in Los Angeles causes real world headaches | Watch

Receipts show the awful reality of California’s tax squeeze

Most people remain displaced one year after LA-area wildfires | AP News