On Saturday, April 25, 2026, the Mises Institute met at the San Diego Mission Bay Resort for California’s Decline: A Warning to America. For much of its history, California stood out, not only as a land of remarkable natural beauty and extensive natural resources, but as a place with institutions that fueled extraordinary wealth creation.
That is what makes its decline so important to understand. The central question of the day was how a state with so much going for it has been driven into such serious dysfunction, and how the rest of the country can avoid following the same path.
Peter Klein opened with “What Happened to the University of California?” Looking at the decline of the University of California system, Klein argued that the ideological decay of higher education is not merely the result of a few radical professors. It is the predictable result of a higher education system built on public funding, accreditation cartels, and institutions insulated from genuine ownership and accountability.
Chris Calton followed with “How Democratic Socialism Created California’s Housing Crisis.” Tracing the history of NIMBYism, environmental activism, and laws like the California Environmental Quality Act, Calton showed how California’s housing crisis was caused by the political destruction of private property rights, which has anointed activists, bureaucrats, and local governments with the terrible power to stop desperately needed housing from being built. Bill Anderson, who lives in the state, reflected on California’s remarkable beauty and history before detailing why he and his family are considering leaving in “Where California Went Wrong.” Anderson explained how the state’s political class has turned environmentalism, water policy, energy policy, and antigrowth ideology into institutionalized burdens that are driving more and more people away.
Connor O’Keeffe continued with “Unnatural Disasters: How the State Makes Wildfires Bigger and Deadlier.” Drawing on his background in natural disaster research, O’Keeffe argued that government officials are actively making California’s wildfires larger and deadlier through price controls in the insurance market as well as land monopolization and mismanagement. He showed that the destructiveness of wildfires is not something Californians must accept as simply beyond human control.
Ryan McMaken’s talk, “America’s States Are Too Big and Too Centralized,” widened the lens beyond California. McMaken argued that many state problems are made worse by the sheer size and centralization of modern American government. When populations with sharply different interests and values are forced into the same oversized political structures, conflict becomes inevitable. And the response is almost always more centralization.
Finally, Edward Fuller closed with “Myths About Keynes.” Fuller debunked the mythology surrounding John Maynard Keynes and showed how his ideas and political influence helped legitimize the interventionist state that dominates modern economic life. That interventionist mindset is a central part of the story of California’s decline.
The event concluded with a speakers’ panel guided by questions the audience had submitted during the talks.
California’s decline is not natural or inevitable. It is the result of policies, institutions, and governing ideas that have made it artificially hard for ordinary people to live, work, build, study, insure, and raise families in what should be one of the most prosperous places on earth.
That is what makes California such an important warning. The interventionist mindset that has damaged the state is not confined to Sacramento. It is present across the country, and unless Americans understand where it leads, California’s present will become America’s future.
