California Loves Its Workers. (And Its CEOs.)

Chief Executive magazine says that California ranks dead last as the worst place to do business in the United States. I’m a little suspicious of any list that ranks California #34 in “living environment,” since that’s precisely the reason so many people put up with our high taxes and regulations, but I suppose they have their reasons. In any case, there’s a flip side to this. Guess which state Oxfam ranks as the best state for workers?

I imagine this is sort of a zero-sum game. If a state is good for CEOs, it’s probably not so great for workers, and vice versa.

But wait! As it happens, despite our terrible taxes and endless rules and high minimum wage and environmental tomfoolery, it turns out that the average income of the top 1 percent in California is over $500,000. That’s the highest outside the mid-Atlantic and the 6th highest in the country. So for all their bitching, and for all the worker protections we have in place, California seems to be a pretty good place for CEOs after all. Maybe there’s a lesson to be learned from—

Nah. What am I thinking?

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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