I hope that California can be a leader in a more compassionate form of government that provides some kind of universal basic services to the people who live here. I hope we look back and realize just how weak our safety nets were in 2026 and how much we’ve built upon them to where it’s really not recognizable. That we are a more collectivist society that slows down and takes care of each other. And we’re not so obsessed with the newest fad, the newest trend, latest invention, and we realize that just because we have cell phones doesn’t mean that we’re more advanced than past populations. In some ways it might make us less so.

Source: Los Angeles Times February 13, 2026 20:36 UTC