California Thievin'

It appears the citizens of California have decided to go in to the short term money-lending game. Their only customer will be the State of California itself.

Did I say decided? I meant it was decided for them. McArdle:

California has come up with a novel way to close this year's budget gaps: it's increasing withholding from the paychecks of its citizens. No, the government didn't actually increase taxes; it just raised the withholding.

The only reason this is not literally a violation of criminal law is that the government is the perpetrator. As such, the citizens have almost no immediate way to respond.

Don Boudreaux of George Mason University had this to say about the enhanced withholding:

It’s fashionable today to accuse private businesses of being greedy, duplicitous, and larcenous. But no business could get away with such audacious seizures of other people’s property – seizures that governments, such as California’s, are escalating to a dreadful new level.

Resorting to such a scheme to paper over the continuing fiscal disaster that is the California budget is sad and frightening.