One hundred years from now, if present trends continue, California could conceivably have as many as 90 million residents. Where these future residents will live and work is unclear. How future Californians will occupy the landscape is also unclear.

As the union's most populous state sizes itself up for the century ahead, I am reminded of this comment by José Ortega y Gasset, about 1930's Europe:

"Towns are full of people, houses full of tenants, hotels full of guests, trains full of travellers, cafés full of customers, parks full of promenaders, consulting-rooms of famous doctors full of patients, theatres full of spectators, and beaches full of bathers. What previously was, in general, no problem, now begins to be an everyday one, namely, to find room."

Consider this your guide to long-term investment. (In real estate? In politics?)