Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

No Labor Protests in San Diego

San Diego’s income inequality reflects the national average.
San Diego’s income inequality reflects the national average.

If the massive union workers’ protests radiate from Wisconsin and Ohio across the country, you can almost bet there is one metro area that won’t participate in large numbers: San Diego County.

Across the nation, realistically, uprisings may be limited to very heavily unionized areas. Since fewer than 12 percent of American workers belong to unions (down from 36 percent 65 years ago), Americans aren’t likely to storm the Bastille over organized-labor issues, particularly since government workers’ unions dominate the labor movement today and many taxpayers are resentful of the fat pensions and early retirements that municipal safety workers, in particular, enjoy.

While polls indicate that more than 60 percent of Americans don’t approve of the type of restrictions proposed in Wisconsin for public workers, it’s questionable that many people lacking an overriding self-interest will be aroused enough to take to the streets.

California is more unionized than the nation, but sympathy for labor unions is not likely to reach the boiling point in San Diego. According to the University of California Los Angeles Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, San Diego is one of the least-unionized metro areas in the state. Last year, only 13.3 percent of San Diego workers belonged to unions. The figure was 16.5 percent in Los Angeles, 17 percent in San Francisco, and 17.6 percent statewide.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Private-sector unionization was a mere 5.3 percent in San Diego, compared with 9.7 percent in the state, 7 percent in the nation, 10 percent in San Francisco, and 9.3 percent in Los Angeles. Public-sector unionization here was 45 percent, but the comparable state number was 56.1 percent, while in bureaucrat-bloated Sacramento, not surprisingly, it was 58.8 percent. San Francisco was close at 57.4 percent.

For the movement to explode across the country, protesters’ focus will have to broaden. It will take more cosmic grievances to bring up the bile — say, the repugnant gap between the superrich and the not-so-rich. Income and wealth disparities are a major factor setting Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Libya, and Iran aflame. (Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak may personally control as much as $70 billion in wealth — about twice as much as the right-wing, Kansas-based Koch brothers, who are shoveling money and advice to the Wisconsin governor.)

Americans should feel bitter resentment that average people’s wages, adjusted for inflation, have gone nowhere for 20 years, while the richest 1 percent have seen their incomes grow 33 percent over the period. Folks should gnash their teeth that the richest 1 percent rake in 24 percent of total income and the wealthiest 1 percent have more net worth than the bottom 90 percent. The top 15 hedge-fund managers are bringing home an average of $1 billion a year and paying only 17 percent taxes.

Someday, such figures will have people ready to revolt. But not yet — and almost certainly not in San Diego, which has an ugly antiunion and anti–free speech history. In 1912, disaffected workers, including members of the leftist Industrial Workers of the World (Wobblies) would gather in the Stingaree district, filled with whorehouses and opium dens, to hear soapbox orations about workers’ rights and social inequality. The city council passed ordinances severely restricting free speech. Police threw protesters in a vermin-infested jail. San Diego vigilantes, spurred on by hate-filled newspapers, physically brutalized the workers protesting uncivilized conditions.

San Diego gained the reputation as the city least tolerant of free speech — and that legacy remains. Mainstream media and the establishment still disparage anyone challenging the conventional wisdom.

Income inequality can foment social defiance, but San Diego is more balanced than one might suspect. The Census Bureau has a Gini Index, which measures income inequality on a scale of 0 to 100. Metro areas with scores closer to zero have more equality; those closer to 100 have more inequality. In 2009, San Diego was about in the middle of major metro areas. The most unequal metro area, 54th on the list, was New York City, home of Wall Street. The most equal, number 1, was Salt Lake City. San Diego came in 25th — not bad at all, and right at the U.S. average. (Traditionally, the most unequal — too small to be included in the largest 54 metro areas — has been Southern Connecticut, including superupscale Greenwich, Darien, and New Canaan. That’s where so many of those hedge funds are based, in the aptly named Gold Coast.)

It’s true that San Diego County median rents — at $1224 monthly — are the fourth highest in the nation, according to the Census, and even though housing values have plunged 36.6 percent from their late 2005 high, the median housing price is $387,600, according to the National Association of Realtors. But San Francisco tops that at $588,900, and San Jose is higher still at $628,700. What do you want to do: go to Youngstown, Ohio, where the median price is $60,400? (Mobsters will smack down any labor protests in Youngstown.)

San Diego’s cost-of-living index, as compiled by the Council for Community and Economic Research, is 32.5 percent higher than the nation’s — about the same as Boston’s and Philadelphia’s. But San Diego housing costs are 93.3 percent higher than the national norm; utilities costs are slightly lower than in other cities, and costs of groceries, transportation, and health care are only 7 to 15 percent higher than in other metro areas.

Housing affordability is still a problem, despite the crash. Only 62 percent of county households can afford to purchase an entry-level home, according to the California Association of Realtors. That compares with 69 percent in California and 80 percent in the United States.

It has always been said that San Diegans are hit with a sunshine tax. They live on psychic income. That’s because, historically, incomes have been only a bit above average while the cost of living has been well above the national norm. But San Diegans’ incomes have been creeping up. Last year, per capita personal income in the county was $45,630, or 27th highest among 366 metro areas, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Southern Connecticut was far ahead at $73,720, and San Francisco was second at $59,696. But the Bay Area’s cost of living is 62 percent above the nation’s.

You could live in Yuma ($25,496) or El Centro ($28,154) and pay a different kind of sunshine tax — too much sunshine and too little income.

Culturally and economically, San Diego is definitely not likely to join lustily in the union protest movement, even if the focus becomes income inequality. The county doesn’t breed dissent, and the overlords don’t tolerate it. ■

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

San Diego Reader 2024 Music & Arts Issue

Favorite fakers: Baby Bushka, Fleetwood Max, Electric Waste Band, Oceans, Geezer – plus upcoming tribute schedule
San Diego’s income inequality reflects the national average.
San Diego’s income inequality reflects the national average.

If the massive union workers’ protests radiate from Wisconsin and Ohio across the country, you can almost bet there is one metro area that won’t participate in large numbers: San Diego County.

Across the nation, realistically, uprisings may be limited to very heavily unionized areas. Since fewer than 12 percent of American workers belong to unions (down from 36 percent 65 years ago), Americans aren’t likely to storm the Bastille over organized-labor issues, particularly since government workers’ unions dominate the labor movement today and many taxpayers are resentful of the fat pensions and early retirements that municipal safety workers, in particular, enjoy.

While polls indicate that more than 60 percent of Americans don’t approve of the type of restrictions proposed in Wisconsin for public workers, it’s questionable that many people lacking an overriding self-interest will be aroused enough to take to the streets.

California is more unionized than the nation, but sympathy for labor unions is not likely to reach the boiling point in San Diego. According to the University of California Los Angeles Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, San Diego is one of the least-unionized metro areas in the state. Last year, only 13.3 percent of San Diego workers belonged to unions. The figure was 16.5 percent in Los Angeles, 17 percent in San Francisco, and 17.6 percent statewide.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Private-sector unionization was a mere 5.3 percent in San Diego, compared with 9.7 percent in the state, 7 percent in the nation, 10 percent in San Francisco, and 9.3 percent in Los Angeles. Public-sector unionization here was 45 percent, but the comparable state number was 56.1 percent, while in bureaucrat-bloated Sacramento, not surprisingly, it was 58.8 percent. San Francisco was close at 57.4 percent.

For the movement to explode across the country, protesters’ focus will have to broaden. It will take more cosmic grievances to bring up the bile — say, the repugnant gap between the superrich and the not-so-rich. Income and wealth disparities are a major factor setting Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Libya, and Iran aflame. (Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak may personally control as much as $70 billion in wealth — about twice as much as the right-wing, Kansas-based Koch brothers, who are shoveling money and advice to the Wisconsin governor.)

Americans should feel bitter resentment that average people’s wages, adjusted for inflation, have gone nowhere for 20 years, while the richest 1 percent have seen their incomes grow 33 percent over the period. Folks should gnash their teeth that the richest 1 percent rake in 24 percent of total income and the wealthiest 1 percent have more net worth than the bottom 90 percent. The top 15 hedge-fund managers are bringing home an average of $1 billion a year and paying only 17 percent taxes.

Someday, such figures will have people ready to revolt. But not yet — and almost certainly not in San Diego, which has an ugly antiunion and anti–free speech history. In 1912, disaffected workers, including members of the leftist Industrial Workers of the World (Wobblies) would gather in the Stingaree district, filled with whorehouses and opium dens, to hear soapbox orations about workers’ rights and social inequality. The city council passed ordinances severely restricting free speech. Police threw protesters in a vermin-infested jail. San Diego vigilantes, spurred on by hate-filled newspapers, physically brutalized the workers protesting uncivilized conditions.

San Diego gained the reputation as the city least tolerant of free speech — and that legacy remains. Mainstream media and the establishment still disparage anyone challenging the conventional wisdom.

Income inequality can foment social defiance, but San Diego is more balanced than one might suspect. The Census Bureau has a Gini Index, which measures income inequality on a scale of 0 to 100. Metro areas with scores closer to zero have more equality; those closer to 100 have more inequality. In 2009, San Diego was about in the middle of major metro areas. The most unequal metro area, 54th on the list, was New York City, home of Wall Street. The most equal, number 1, was Salt Lake City. San Diego came in 25th — not bad at all, and right at the U.S. average. (Traditionally, the most unequal — too small to be included in the largest 54 metro areas — has been Southern Connecticut, including superupscale Greenwich, Darien, and New Canaan. That’s where so many of those hedge funds are based, in the aptly named Gold Coast.)

It’s true that San Diego County median rents — at $1224 monthly — are the fourth highest in the nation, according to the Census, and even though housing values have plunged 36.6 percent from their late 2005 high, the median housing price is $387,600, according to the National Association of Realtors. But San Francisco tops that at $588,900, and San Jose is higher still at $628,700. What do you want to do: go to Youngstown, Ohio, where the median price is $60,400? (Mobsters will smack down any labor protests in Youngstown.)

San Diego’s cost-of-living index, as compiled by the Council for Community and Economic Research, is 32.5 percent higher than the nation’s — about the same as Boston’s and Philadelphia’s. But San Diego housing costs are 93.3 percent higher than the national norm; utilities costs are slightly lower than in other cities, and costs of groceries, transportation, and health care are only 7 to 15 percent higher than in other metro areas.

Housing affordability is still a problem, despite the crash. Only 62 percent of county households can afford to purchase an entry-level home, according to the California Association of Realtors. That compares with 69 percent in California and 80 percent in the United States.

It has always been said that San Diegans are hit with a sunshine tax. They live on psychic income. That’s because, historically, incomes have been only a bit above average while the cost of living has been well above the national norm. But San Diegans’ incomes have been creeping up. Last year, per capita personal income in the county was $45,630, or 27th highest among 366 metro areas, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Southern Connecticut was far ahead at $73,720, and San Francisco was second at $59,696. But the Bay Area’s cost of living is 62 percent above the nation’s.

You could live in Yuma ($25,496) or El Centro ($28,154) and pay a different kind of sunshine tax — too much sunshine and too little income.

Culturally and economically, San Diego is definitely not likely to join lustily in the union protest movement, even if the focus becomes income inequality. The county doesn’t breed dissent, and the overlords don’t tolerate it. ■

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Top Websites To Buy Instagram Likes + Bonus Tip!

Next Article

Croome Brothers Trio, Jack Tempchin, Ricky, Swami & the Bed Of Nails, Kahlil Nash

Acoustic and electric in Del Mar, La Jolla, Little Italy, and City Heights
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.