Two futures are on the ballot Nov. 3: own nothing, or own your life

On Nov. 3 we are not just picking a governor and a few council members. We are choosing between two kinds of future, and the technology coming in the next decade will lock in whichever one we choose.

The first future belongs to a hyper-class. A small number of people will control the AI models, the robot fleets, the data and the currency, and they will own almost everything. Everyone else lives on an income the state grants and can take away. In 2016 the World Economic Forum, the Davos crowd, published an essay that opened with the line "Welcome to 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better." Its author, Danish politician Ida Auken, later called it a thought experiment, and the Forum renamed the piece. Plenty of people in power read it as a plan anyway.

That world is communism, except it doesn't promise equality. It promises caste. And for the first time in history, a ruling caste would not need the consent of the governed to stay in power. Robots can do the policing. AI can do the surveillance.

The second future is built on merit, freedom and private property. Every person stays the owner of their life, their work and their share of what the new machines produce. The goal is not to ration scarcity but to make so much energy, housing and wealth that we can afford to understand the universe and settle the cosmos.

California's ruling party has already picked the first future. You can see it on your bills.

Start with electricity. SDG&E's average residential rate reached 45.6 cents per kilowatt-hour in August, according to the utility's own rate notice. The national average for the first eight months of 2026 was 18.19 cents, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Arizona paid 15.36 cents and Nevada 13.36. Sacramento could have chosen cheap, plentiful power. It chose scarcity. Federal regulators have licensed Diablo Canyon, the state's last nuclear plant, to run into 2044 and 2045. State law still says it closes in 2030 unless the Legislature acts, according to the governor's own office. That plant supplied about 10 percent of California's electricity in 2024.

Then look at how the state now prices power. Since October 2025, SDG&E customers pay a monthly Base Services Charge under AB 205, a 2022 law Gov. Gavin Newsom signed. It is about $24 a month for most households, $12 or $6 for lower-income households in the CARE and FERA programs. What you pay for a basic necessity now depends on which income bracket the system puts you in. A utility bill is becoming a means test.

Gasoline is the same story. AAA put San Diego's average at $6.11 a gallon on Oct. 24, against $4.51 in Phoenix. The Energy Information Administration says the closure of Phillips 66's Los Angeles refinery and the idling of Valero's Benicia refinery cut California's refining capacity by 17 percent. The state did not build more supply when it lost supply. It added carbon programs that the California Energy Commission puts at about 40 cents a gallon. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Oct. 14 that prices in the San Diego area rose 4.7 percent over the past year, the highest since 2023, while gasoline here rose 29.5 percent.

Now look at Measure B on the county ballot. It would raise the sales tax by a half cent forever, with no end date, and bring in up to $450 million a year. Its official text sets aside up to 60 percent of that money for health care, food and child care programs. Mark Kersey of the San Diego County Taxpayers Association put it plainly: "Those spending priorities will be the priorities in perpetuity." Two county unions wrote clauses into their contracts that reopen wage talks if a measure like this passes. A permanent tax, permanent programs and a permanent constituency that depends on them is the first future, built one ballot measure at a time.

None of this is an accident of the market. Every charge I have described traces to a vote in Sacramento or a decision by a commission the governor appoints. When energy is scarce and expensive, people depend on the government that rations it. When a family can't afford to own a home, a car or a business, it rents everything from the few who can. That is how you get people who own nothing and are told to be happy about it.

The other path is not complicated. Build power plants, including nuclear. Build refineries and pipelines until we no longer need them. Build houses. Let people keep what they earn and own what they build. Put AI and robots to work making things cheap, not watching people. A country that produces more than it needs can afford freedom, and a country that can afford freedom can go to the stars.

You can vote for that future starting now. Early voting is open, and Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3. Vote no on Measure B. Vote against every candidate who thinks your power bill should depend on your income bracket. This is the future we want.