Larry Gerston's Not So Golden After All is a comprehensive work detailing the many inequities, shortcomings, and challenges California faces in regards to public policy. Gerston discusses a variety of problems that California is facing, such as an extremely imbalanced power structure favoring special interest groups, a public that demands the government provides services yet seems to lack the political will to pay for it, and a legislature that is severely constrained by rigid funding mandates and restrictive legislative rules. Essentially, Gerston concludes that California is not governed rationally, and this results in a variety of harmful consequences for the once "Golden State." In one example of irrationality, Gerston (2012) states that
