We would be lucky to have CA’s economy
State Senator Tim Lang’s My Turn piece “NH can’t afford CA’s economy” (Concord Monitor, Aug. 21, 2026) ignores a critical fact about California’s economy. As a result of the AI boom, Governor Newsom is presiding over one of the greatest periods of job creation and capital formation in history. The Wall Street Journal reported on the same day as Lang’s My Turn piece that “Companies based in the Golden State have drawn around 366 billion of venture capital since the beginning of the year … That’s more than three times the amount of venture funding that’s gone into the other 49 states combined and nearly double Californias previous record set in 2025.”
The reason has nothing to do with state tax policy or regulation. California’s growth is driven by the “extraordinary returns to creativity and innovation, which research suggests can be bolstered by people working in proximity to one another and sharing ideas.” In other words, a “‘thick’ labor market of workers with specialized skills — and the firms that need them….”
The Free Stater/Republican policies Senator Lang supports are not likely to attract the creative workers the state needs and seem more likely to turn them off from wanting to come here.