🇨🇦The Liberal government has just introduced Bill C-206 for a Universal Basic Income (UBI) in Canada.

Socialist Canada is no good to anyone.

RIP Canada 😬 https://t.co/vrdaAfOWSr

— Peter St Onge, Ph.D. (@profstonge) November 26, 2025

Major UBI study finds giving cash to poor people just makes them quit work.

They don’t get healthy or start a business. They don’t get their life together. They actually become worse parents.

Like most welfare, UBI is about bribing the poor to stay poor. pic.twitter.com/o9NnEfXoyV

— Peter St Onge, Ph.D. (@profstonge) November 26, 2025

Reward Only Come Before Work
in a Dictionary
(or Democrat city )

Being poor is a Symptom
▪️Bad Habits
▪️Low Skills
▪️Poor Money Management

Universal Basic Income
Free Cash may buy votes,
—but—
💸 Discourages productive behavior
💸 Increases Depression & Development Problems https://t.co/W2bZRHToZP pic.twitter.com/Ol42PEAlPV

— Jim DaBink (@JimDaBink) November 26, 2025

MICHAEL A. AROUET: Eye-opening chart, just 15 years ago Europe produced more natural gas than Russia.

Europe's left is destroying them. https://t.co/W7MrzwvS4G

— Peter St Onge, Ph.D. (@profstonge) November 20, 2025

PETER ST ONGE: According to the Atlanta Fed, GDP right now is growing at a blistering 4% led by trillions of investment flooding into reshoring production

Every single point of Fed cut is worth roundabout a million jobs, while every trillion of investment is also worth a million jobs.  The problem, of course, is that it all takes time.  The FED is looking at three quarters of a point cut the next year, while that tsunami of foreign investment will take years to go from planning to blueprints to construction to operation.  --Peter St Onge

Foreclosures spike 20%. Car loan delinquencies soar 50% — worse than 2008.

And nearly half of Americans can’t pay their bills.

Biden left a crater that Trump’s trying to fill with new factories. But AI could eat up the new jobs as fast as they’re born. pic.twitter.com/Rub3H0luKA

— Peter St Onge, Ph.D. (@profstonge) November 20, 2025

New data says millions of Americans are struggling even as GDP soars.  Are we becoming a two-speed economy with party at the top, misery at the bottom? The last couple of weeks showed spreading pain among low-income and even middle-class Americans.  One study found foreclosures jumped 20% year over year after a decade laying dormant. Car loan delinquencies are up 50% this year.  In fact, 60-day late car payments hit a record high, worse than 2008. Repossessions hit 1.7 million, also worse than the 2008 crisis.  Another study found 68% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck; that's up 10 points in the last 18 months, 43% of them have trouble paying their monthly bills.  Combined with recent job weakness it's painting a picture of essentially three Americas: a rich quarter who is doing fantastic, a middle half who's running down assets and starting to miss payments, and a bottom quarter who is close to going under.

Now this pattern did not start yesterday.  In fact, it's the theme of Joe Biden's four long years where we got a so-called k-shaped economy with the rich soaring to new heights, while everybody else treads water or sinks.  To illustrate, a study by Moody's found the top 10% of households now account for 49.2% of spending; that's up almost five points since COVID. Interestingly, the bottom quarter also rose since COVID thanks to trillions dumped into welfare and social spending using COVID as the excuse. To illustrate, SNAP alone grew almost 70% since COVID.  In other words, the middle class is getting squeezed on both ends.  Now, help is on the way.  According to the Atlanta Fed, GDP right now is growing at a blistering 4% led by trillions of investment flooding into reshoring production and, of course, AI data centers.  Meanwhile, mass deportations and departures are already 2 million plus, which is driving down rents and used car prices.  Rents are currently falling by 4% annualized, all while blue-collar wages just hit the highest growth in 65 years.  Still, Biden left a deep hole and Trump's made back barely a quarter of the loss in real incomes.  Moreover, those trillions of COVID  benefits and stimmies resets spending levels for a lot of middle-class households.  They got used to spending more than they make, and are now losing their cars and apparently their houses.  

We've got two big growth engines coming: Fed cuts and those trillions of Investment.  Every single point of Fed cut is worth roundabout a million jobs, while every trillion of investment is also worth a million jobs.  The problem, of course, is that it all takes time.  The FED is looking at three quarters of a point cut the next year, while that tsunami of foreign investment will take years to go from planning to blueprints to construction to operation.  Meanwhile, if AI job losses ramp up, it could gobble those millions of jobs as fast as they're born.  If that happens and jobs are still sluggish by midterms, voters may take it out on Republicans and see if socialism works this time. 

PETER ST ONGE: European colonialism was the best thing that ever happened to the third world.

European colonialism was the best thing that ever happened to the third world.

There's actually a famous paper on this by Nobel Laureate Daron Acemoglu: Colonial Origins of Comparative Advantage. In short, the longer you were a colony the richer you are today.

Concretely, Hong… https://t.co/6MOcbeaek5

— Peter St Onge, Ph.D. (@profstonge) November 19, 2025

PETER ST ONGE: the rule requires a medical report that would exclude anybody with major health issues that could burden taxpayers. So no more Guatemalans parachuting in for free dialysis or million-dollar transplants.

Trump is deporting migrants who go on welfare.

Especially the fat ones.

This could toss 6 in 10. And raises the surreal prospect migrants could actually pay for their own groceries. pic.twitter.com/3tpsVfYh8y

— Peter St Onge, Ph.D. (@profstonge) November 18, 2025

Donald Trump is cutting off migrants who go on welfare, especially the fat ones, raising the surreal prospect that migrants could actually pay for their own Healthcare, even their own groceries.  

Last week, the State Department announced it would be enforcing the century old Public Charge Laws [term was introduced in the Immigration Act of 1882] that deny visas and entry to people who are likely to rely on public benefits, including welfare, housing, or Medicare provided free by taxpayers.  The rules had been ignored by Biden's hailers so they could replace American voters with their 3rd worlders and therein a major reason why almost 4 in 10 migrants do not bother working.  The rule would deny entry to anybody who has ever used government cash assistance, SNAP, WIC, Medicaid, or who's ever been institutionalized, or their nursing home.  That could hit up to 6 and 10 non-citizen households, including so-called mixed status households where the anchor baby unleashes a flood of benefits.  In fact, a separate study found 36% of non-citizens have used SNAP; 37% have used Medicaid; 22% literally collect cash payments, TANF.  In all, the Center for Immigration Statistics estimates almost 2/3 of non-citizen households have taken taxpayer money.  Though the real number could be much higher, illegals have every reason to hide their status as do the left-wing bureaucrats who import them.  Now beyond the grifters, the rule requires a medical report that would exclude anybody with major health issues that could burden taxpayers.  So no more Guatemalans parachuting in for free dialysis or million-dollar transplants.  Conditions include diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, which one in three Mexicans have; it includes obese migrants who after all are very likely to consume tax-funded Healthcare resources, along with anybody with mental health conditions or drug addiction which seems long overdue.  Worth pausing to know that billions of people want to move to the US, meaning we could cherry pick the very best, the best one in a thousand, the Elons, the Arnold Schwarzeneggers, the Japanese Nobel physicists.  Instead, we take millions of drags so that millions of dregs so Democrats can recruit new voters.  Now all this matters because American taxpayers currently waste almost $200 billion a year on migrants, according to the Heritage Foundation, when we could be turning a massive profit from cherry picking the best.  I recently mentioned a European study that found migrants from Western countries or Japan generate half a million dollars in net benefits per migrant, while those from the 3rd world consume half a million or more per person.  

The new rule is being implemented by the famously left-wing State Department, so it will take eagle eyes to make sure they're doing what they're supposed to.  But the big payoff would be reviewing the 13 million green card holders whose permanent residency should also be subject to Public Charge rules.  After all it's a privilege to come to this country; if you can't hack it, go home. Trump needs Congress to do this; he can only do new entrants.  And giving green cards to convert to citizens at 70,000 per month, the clock is ticking.  So it's a great start from Trump, but Congress needs to finish the job.

THE CATASTROPHE OF MASS IMMIGRATION: One finds third world migrants drain between $500,000 and $1,000,000 each. Another finds criminal rates up to 50 times higher than natives.

But diversity is our strength.

Truly, the High Table knows this. That's why they flood the world. https://t.co/7NAqSVlHgG

— Tom Luongo (Head Sneetch) (@TFL1728) November 5, 2025

PETER ST ONGE: Closing the asylums was one of the most catastrophic decisions of the past 50 years. Was prison always the goal of Reagan emptying insane asylums?

Don't like homelessness?  Thank Ronald Reagan. 

Closing the asylums was one of the most catastrophic decisions of the past 50 years. https://t.co/k7Z31vgG5X

— Peter St Onge, Ph.D. (@profstonge) November 2, 2025

Many patients were released into the community without adequate support systems, leading to increased homelessness and many individuals ending up in jails and prisons, which are not equipped to provide proper mental health care. The deinstitutionalization movement, initiated in the 1960s and continued under Reagan, aimed to shift care to community settings, but those facilities were often never built or adequately funded.

from Thousand Oaks Acorn. Oh, boy.

1980, In 1980, under Jimmy Carter, the Mental Health Systems Act of 1980 was passed.  This bill provided federal grants to local community mental health centers. One year later, the 96th Congress, with a Democratic majority in both houses, repealed the act.

1972, What Reagan did do, as governor of California, was to sign the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act [in 1967] but go into full effect in 1972. That bipartisan legislation made mandatory institutionalization of mental health patients by family members and civil courts illegal. That way a bad judge or vindictive relative couldn’t have you locked up indefinitely at a state hospital.

The result of that humanitarian legislation was that populations in state hospitals dropped, but Reagan didn’t directly oversee, direct or cause any hospital closures.

1990s, The majority of mental hospitals in California were actually closed in the late 1990s, when Pete Wilson formed a task force to examine state hospital operations. The task force found that the populations of many state hospitals had dropped dramatically and the per-capita costs had skyrocketed to $114,000 per year. 

1997, Camarillo State Hospital, 1936-1997, (also known as Camarillo State Mental Hospital) in Camarillo, California, officially closed on June 30, 1997. This followed years of declining patient numbers due to reforms like the 1967 Lanterman-Petris-Short Act [signed by Reagan] and rising costs, leading to Governor Pete Wilson's decision in 1996 to shut it down. The site later became California State University Channel Islands, with classes starting in 2002. While one source mentions a partial closure in 1996, the full and permanent closure was in 1997.

On Thousand Oaks Acorn, it is odd that the internet would produce two opposing stories, here and here.  

Apparently, it was Edmund Pat Brown who initiated the closure of the mental hospitals.  

Edmund G. "Pat" Brown, as Governor of California from 1959 to 1967, initiated significant reforms in the mental health care system, which included the release of patients from state mental hospitals. This shift was part of a broader movement towards deinstitutionalization, influenced by the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act of 1967, which aimed to grant patients more civil rights and integrate them into community care.

Here are the receipts,

If there was any single event that sped the emptying of state asylums in California in the late 1960s and early 1970s, it was the publication of these staffers’ 204-page report entitled, “The Dilemma of Mental Commitments in California.”

The report was an exposé, a philosophical treatise, and a policy prescription. It became public on Nov. 24, 1966, three weeks after Ronald Reagan defeated Democratic Gov. Edmund G. “Pat” Brown, and six weeks before Reagan took the oath of office at the Capitol in Sacramento.

“The Dilemma of Mental Commitments in California” is all but forgotten today, existing on a few library shelves. There’s no digital version. But it framed the legislative debate in 1967 and led to one of the most consequential pieces of legislation ever signed in California, the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act.

PETER ST ONGE: We're gonna need a bigger shutdown.

We're gonna need a bigger shutdown. https://t.co/oi7TAZTIp7

— Peter St Onge, Ph.D. (@profstonge) October 31, 2025

PETER ST ONGE: France is poorer than Mississippi. And Canada -- which used to be richer than us -- is poorer than West Virginia.

France is poorer than Mississippi.

And Canada -- which used to be richer than us -- is poorer than West Virginia. https://t.co/mi1IQO6yqR

— Peter St Onge, Ph.D. (@profstonge) October 29, 2025

PETER ST ONGE:

Permanent federal firings begin.

Meanwhile, Trump finds creative ways to pay the military. And defund Democrats’ trillion-dollar slush funds.

Caesar seized senators’ estates to pay his legions. By shutting down, Democrats are seizing their own estates for Trump. pic.twitter.com/wf4xrqKedp

— Peter St Onge, Ph.D. (@profstonge) October 16, 2025

DANIEL LACALLE:

"If tariffs caused inflation, China would have hyperinflation... Government spending and printing are what cause inflation."

🔥🔥 https://t.co/j6pf7rPFAV

— Peter St Onge, Ph.D. (@profstonge) July 7, 2025

When people look at the enormity of this thing like the talk of plus private dining rooms elevators and I don't think a lot of folks realize how huge the Federal Reserve System is they've got a budget of 6 billion dollars they've got $24,000 employees that's the kind of bloat that invites bureaucracy and also the reason why they don't move so quickly it also underscores that the FED may have too many tasks I just want your thoughts on all of this.

00:43.  Hi Charles you are absolutely right hundreds of economists and nobody pays attention to monitoring Aggregates and nobody seems to pay attention to what really drives inflation and growth this is what worries me what really worries me is that the Fed has been overtaken by a bunch of Keynesian and economists that are constantly creating models that only justified bloated government spending the enormity of the Keynesian  policies impacts and never to say what really drives inflation which is government spending and money printing

PETER ST ONGE: This is what job creation for Americans looks like after ICE raids ✌️

This is what job creation for Americans looks like after ICE raids ✌️ https://t.co/CNpnqjlC6W

— Peter St Onge, Ph.D. (@profstonge) March 18, 2025

PETER ST ONGE: Without USAID money, rent-a-mobs just aren't what they used to be

Without USAID money, rent-a-mobs just aren't what they used to be 🤔 https://t.co/LwqMLpuGYt

— Peter St Onge, Ph.D. (@profstonge) February 17, 2025

DC Homes Tanking 15%?

The rats are dispersing.

Homes put up for sale in just the last 14 days in DC. pic.twitter.com/sUMRLy83HO

— Merissa Hansen (@merissahansen17) February 14, 2025

Rats abandoning the mothership https://t.co/VT5rb722uw

— Peter St Onge, Ph.D. (@profstonge) February 15, 2025

PETER ST ONGE: Biden's final jobs report: 589,000 jobs revised into oblivion; 70% of jobs created in the government sector; 99.2% of jobs going to foreign-born workers

Still, what's more important is help is on the way.  Trump's spending cuts, tax cuts, regulatory cuts, and mass deportations will all lead to more jobs for Americans. --Peter St Onge.  

Onge is more optimistic than me.

Joe Biden's final jobs report is out and it's a doozy.

- 589,000 jobs revised into oblivion
- 70% of jobs created in the government sector
- 99.2% of jobs going to foreign-born workers

This is the mess they’re handing Donald Trump. pic.twitter.com/zUmz4pfBKU

— Peter St Onge, Ph.D. (@profstonge) February 10, 2025

Joe Biden's final jobs report is out, and it is a doozy, a veritable orgy of revisions kicking off with a massive Bureau of Labor Statistics revision that wiped out 589,000 imaginary jobs the Biden Administration had been propping up until the election.  Every single month of 2024 was revised down, and keep in mind this is not the whole story.  The Philly Fed thinks there's another 800,000 fake jobs lurking in these sweet nothings of Biden's finest government statisticians.  Now, Trump's new Chief Economist, Kevin Hassett, summed it up, "The Biden job market was way worse than markets thought.  There is a lot of cleaning up to do.  Democrats and Legacy Media, of course, tried to pin the whole mess on Trump, turning it as Trump's first job report when it covers the period before Trump even took office and revises numbers Biden invented. 

Even more concerning than the revisions was the job composition.  Nearly 70% of new jobs were either government workers or government-funded education social assistance, what the Wall Street Journal calls "the welfare industrial complex."  Just 45,000 jobs were created outside of government.  Out of an economy of 164 million workers that is roughly 1/3 what the economy needs just to tread water.  Note, all of those government-funded jobs will have been bought with tax dollars cuz the government, of course, creates absolutely nothing.  It only steals.  This pumps up the national debt, which we will either have to repay with higher taxes or, as Biden had been doing, with inflation.  Once again full-time jobs were replaced by part-time jobs, a theme under Biden.  Government counts both as a job, of course, but most people take part-time jobs because they can't find a full-time job, and yet they still need to eat.  Finally, the report found that precisely 99.2% of new jobs in January went to foreign-born workers.  Just 0.8% went to the native-born, who make up 4/5 of America's population, and, in theory, 90% of America's voters in case Dems wonder why they lost.

Warren Buffett famously quipped that when the tide goes out we see who's swimming without a suit.  There will be a lot more revisions as we've discovered.  Just how deep the lies and statistical manipulations went under Biden, starting with that 800,000 revision by the Philly Fed.  Still, what's more important is help is on the way.  Trump's spending cuts, tax cuts, regulatory cuts, and mass deportations will all lead to more jobs for Americans.  Yes, even for the hundreds of thousands of redundant federal workers who will go from a monkey on the back of the private sector to actually doing something useful with their lives.  So, in the coming months expect a lot of the numbers to get much worse on paper with the revisions even as our job market starts healing, reversing Biden's handlers' wholesale government takeover and freeing Americans to get back to making things again.

WANNA HEAR CRAZY?! An approximate 35,000 jobs (you read correctly) have already reportedly been lost in JORDAN since USAID cuts have taken place due to @DOGE @elonmusk.

So America has been employing 35,000 Jordanians, as 6 million Americans remain unemployed. @TheNationalNews pic.twitter.com/LSZ5duh5yt

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) February 10, 2025

PETER ST ONGE: 99.2% of new jobs last month went to foreign-born workers

since July 2018, the US labor force has added 4.6 million foreign-born workers, while the number of native-born workers has declined by nearly 700K

the only job growth in the US in the past 6 years has been for foreigners, is clearly the result of Biden's policies  --ZeroHedge

99.2% of new jobs last month went to foreign-born workers 🤯https://t.co/a90g7RIaaw

— Peter St Onge, Ph.D. (@profstonge) February 7, 2025

The article is titled, "Lost In Today's Job Revision Chaos: Over 1 Million Foreign-Born Workers Found A Job... And No Native Borns."

Earlier today, the BLS confirmed what we previewed last night (see "Tomorrow's Jobs Report Will Finally Capture The Surge In Illegal Aliens, Lead To Another Big Negative Payrolls Revision"), and admitted what we had been saying for much of the past 3 years -that most of the job gains in the past few years, and especially 2024, were a mirage, and following the dramatic August 2024 preliminary data revision which vaporized 818K jobs (which had never existed in the first place)

. . .   

And the reason why it won't be a problem is simple: while it won't get much discussion today, the biggest reason behind today's solid increase in the number of employed workers is the same one we have been pounding the table on since 2023. It's all foreign workers, and - as we explained recently - it is mostly all illegal aliens.

That's right, the BLS reported that in January, over a million, or 1,045,000 to be precise, foreign-born workers found a job (and as Standard Chartered explained lst June, this is largely illegal or "undocumented" aliens) compared to only 8,000 native-born workers!  

This means that while we just hit another month of record foreign-born (largely illegal alien) workers, at 31.774 million, the number of native-born workers remains unchanged over the past six years, still below levels last hit in 2019, just before the covid crisis.   

This also means that since July 2018, the US labor force has added 4.6 million foreign-born workers, while the number of native-born workers has declined by nearly 700K. 

And while this (not really) shocking increase in foreign workers, which really is just the latest in a long series of monthly reports confirming that the only job growth in the US in the past 6 years has been for foreigners, is clearly the result of Biden's policies, we would recommend that president Trump do something to urgently if not immediately address this critical topic... a topic which one year ago we correctly predicted would win Trump the 2024 election - and which if left as is, will promptly lead to the transformation of the current euphoria in Trump's presidency, with disappointment. 

MARC NIXON: "They’re not saving the planet—they’re robbing you."

“$2 TRILLION to lower fossil fuel use by 2%

They’re not saving the planet—they’re robbing YOU”

Think $50 trillion. @ChrisAWright_ pic.twitter.com/BYKBgeUvyc

— Douglas Ritz (@douglasritz) February 5, 2025

Biden is looting the Treasury on his way out.

While it’s normal for deposed dictators to fly out pallets of cash, Biden’s doing it to the tune of $2 trillion.

This leaves a giant hole in Trump's budget before he even takes office. pic.twitter.com/m9LhhbRCrj

— Peter St Onge, Ph.D. (@profstonge) January 15, 2025

Joe Biden's handlers are looting the Treasury on the way out.  Now granted it's it is very normal for deposed dictators to fly out pallets of cash as they scamper off to Moscow or Dubai or Delaware.  In Joe's case, he's in line to push $2 trillion dollars out the door before Trump takes office on January 20th $800 [billion] of which will be deficit.  Now $2 trillion is over 30% of the annual budget, meaning Trump will have to trim spending for the rest of the year just to break even.  Now lower spending mechanically subtracts from reported GDP which makes Trump look bad in fact it could knock almost 2% off GDP growth 

https://t.co/QIPrL9TTnl pic.twitter.com/GSodLqVnlj

— Peter St Onge, Ph.D. (@profstonge) January 10, 2025

Young adults Gen Z is hitting midlife crisis in the their twenties.  As it turns out, participation trophies do not, in fact, pay the bills.  That's according to a new study by Behavior researcher, Vitality, which finds that 38% of Gen Z adults, that is ages 18 to 27, report experiencing what they themselves describe as a midlife crisis, driven by financial instability, mental health issues, and career uncertainty.  Gen Z workers were almost 2.5 times more likely to experience depression compared to older colleagues, which is pretty rough when you're in your twenties.  A separate study by Arta Finance found that 30% of Gen Z report financial issues is their primary sources, trust beating out mental health at a robust 25% and dead end careers at 23%. Together these have given Gen Z a growing sense of crisis.  Now what's driving it, of course, is high inflation and slow growth of the Biden years which means wages that have not kept up with inflation add in houses that are out of reach until you make six figures.  So much for young families, plus, a job market that's being revised into recession territory now that the election has passed, driving those who can find a job into anything they can find even a job they hate.  And then finally millions of illegal immigrants who minimum wage every starter job this side of only fans gen Z's response is increasingly self-destructive sorry so called Doom spending where they splurge on trips to the Caribbean or $300 shoes which does dull the pain today but pretty much ends any dream of owning a house or starting a family.

NYU Professor, Scott Galloway, recently highlighted how Gen Z is the first generation in American history to make less than their parents as in for 200 years our economy was working making every generation richer.  Now it broke.  This contributes to rising anxiety and depression, obesity and addiction, over medication, even incarceration and suicide as the future fades out of sight.  The population Reference Bureau found that suicide rate among Gen Z women and girls is almost twice as for men.  One study found that 1 in 3 Gen Z men have not had sex in the past year as they withdraw into a cocoon of gaming and Reddit.  Cause and effect being what it is, just 27% of 30 to 40 year-olds have kids, compared to 60% in 1990.  One recent study pronounced Gen X the loneliest generation, finding that 80% of Gen Z men say they're often lonely and have few or no close friends.  They are shutting in.

We raised an entire generation in an education system that prioritized obedience and self-esteem over excellence, hard work, and grit.  Then we dumped them into a failing economy that is deeply unforgiving of the soft.  Raising the next generation will take root and branch reform of government schools, ideally simply replacing them with vouchers.  As for the generation we've got, the best medicine is jobs that are plentiful and that pay enough to actually build a future.  It's going to be a long road and voters will have to demand reforms on both education and economy.  Government will not fix itself.  Happily we know how to fix it.  Our economy worked for 200 years, and our schools didn't used to be this bad.  But like all government reform, it will be trench warfare.

Read the rest profstonge.com. 

PETER ST ONGE: [shoplifting craze] can set off a so-called Urban Doom Loop, where first residents with jobs flee, then tax revenue plunges, and then the city cannot afford police or even street cleaning

Study: Shoplifting has soared 93% since pre-pandemic.

Which shouldn’t be a surprise unless you’re a journalist.

Soft-on-crime policies turned shoplifting into an entire industry. And millions of low-skill migrants give them plenty of recruits. pic.twitter.com/fERWFIRVGf

— Peter St Onge, Ph.D. (@profstonge) January 2, 2025

A new study says shoplifting has soared 93% compared to pre-COVID even as left-wing media swears up and down that locked-up toothbrushes at CVS are figments of your imagination.  The numbers come from a new study by the National Retail Federation who surveyed 164 retail brands making up $1.5 trillion in sales on what the industry calls shrinkage, and the rest of us call shoplifting, boosting jack-packing five-finger discounts.  

What's driving it of course is the effective legalization of shoplifting in blue cities and states including California and New York.  To give a flavor, before Old Navy exited its San Francisco hometown, one store manager said he was getting hit 14 times a day.  Indeed, in California you got a ticket up to $950 stolen shoplifters would literally keep a running tally.  In Philly, you'd also catch a fine albeit at a less generous $150.  In New York City bail reform meant you walk free up to $1,000 stolen.  

The problem is these policies have generated a nationwide industry of stolen goods.  Unlike the old days where junkies would sell for pennies on the dollar, these organized gangs ship right back into the supply chain which makes it all much more profitable.  Throw in millions of unskilled migrants who face deportation instead of jail time and revolving door deportation at that, and you've got the supply and the demand.  This has taken American shoplifting to a whole other level.  In California, they are boosting entire trains.  New York has migrant shoplifting gangs with dozens of individuals.  One gang in California had 117 shoplifters which would make it a medium-sized business, according to the SBA.  So as the profits go up, the gangs have gotten more violent.  According to that Retail Federation study, 91% of retailers say that shoplifters are more violent and aggressive compared to pre-pandemic.  73% say they're getting more violent in the past year alone.  

Now, in theory we have an FBI to go after Interstate organized crime.  Of course, in reality, the FBI does not have time for organized crime or Jeffrey Epstein or P Diddy for that matter, because they are busy chasing down grandmothers for protesting on January 6th.

Shoplifting raises prices because paying customers have to absorb the theft, but more important it puts retailers out of business.  In San Francisco, Portland, or Chicago entire zones are now empty of commercial.  At some point, people wonder why they are paying $5,000 a month to live in a board-up canyon infested with junkies.  This can set off a so-called Urban Doom Loop, where first residents with jobs flee, then tax revenue plunges, and then the city cannot afford police or even street cleaning.  You end up like Detroit or Baltimore. 

Now thankfully help is on the way, partly because even the Bluest voters have finally had enough.  So a recent California referendum re-criminalized shoplifting but most important because Trump actually intends to deport the hundreds of thousands of criminal migrants making up the gangs.  Perhaps even New Yorkers can someday buy a toothbrush that is not locked in a cage.