In 2010, I wrote an article about the relationship between private property rights and the wealth of a country. The conclusion of the article was that enforcing property rights and the rule of law breeds prosperity. We need to remember that as a country.

On Monday, Hot Air posted an article about a recent series of events in California.

The article reports:

A pair of vacant properties in Hollywood, CA started making news 10 days ago after residents complained a large group of squatters had taken over the homes and were creating a nuisance in the neighborhood.

…The drugs, noise, nudity and criminal behavior were a nuisance but when the police were called out, nothing seemed to change. The squatters would just disappear and then come back when the police were gone. The source of all this activity was another house next door which was receiving money from the city to house the homeless. Some of the homeless would hang out all day on the porch of their free housing and then jump the fence into the abandoned properties at night. But beyond all the nuisance this created, the real danger was the fires.

…Finally, there was enough media attention that L.A. City Councilmember Hugo Soto Martinez issued a statement saying he was working to have the site declared a nuisance.

…So sometime later this month, the city would have held a vote and then eventually taken action to tear the building down. But as it turned out, the homeless squatters beat them to it. Last Thursday the building caught fire again and this time was heavily damaged.

…I can’t prove it but my guess is the city was happy to plod along at its usual pace when this was just a big nuisance for neighbors, but once the building was a danger to the homeless, who might have gone back in after the fire, they acted immediately to tear it down.

The councilman who had promised to have the site declared a nuisance got an earful when he showed up at the site after the fire.

…Meanwhile in Sacramento, just a day after the fire in Hollywood, Democrats voted down a bill which would have made it easier to evict squatters.

Please follow the link above to read the rest of the story. California is going bankrupt. Unfortunately, I suspect the rest of the nation may be forced to bail her out. The inability or unwillingness to protect the property of homeowners who live there is one of many reasons people are leaving the state. As the people who have the money to leave move to other places, there won’t be enough people who are fiscally stable to pay off the taxes and massive state government expenses. The State of California will collapse financially.