"Penal Colony with a nice coastline"

Image by Amin Tabrizi via Flickr

From Kevin Drum at Mother Jones bemoaning the lass of educational opportunity in California.

And if I had the choice of keeping Cal State universities accessible to everyone vs. shoveling another 10,000 petty crooks into prison, I know which I'd choose. Over the past 30 years my fellow California residents have decided they'd rather become a penal colony with a nice coastline than a land of opportunity. It's not a change for the better.