Adam Summers: Why California’s high cost of living is not inevitable

Politicians as diverse as socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Republican President Donald Trump have recently tapped into voters’ concerns about affordability. This has already been an issue for some time in California. While there is little debate that it is becoming harder and harder to get by comfortably, there are significant differences in opinion over how much of the problem is nature versus nurture.

I was discussing this with a friend of mine who is politically left-of-center on most (though not all) issues.