It sure felt like homicide, or at least civil war to me back in 1978 when I and 36% of Californians voted against Prop. 13. It seemed a case of the fat cats teaming up with the 'little guy', the homeowner whose real estate was advancing so quickly it was pushing him out of his own house. That was the year when the middle class first rebelled against the tax system. Two years later the country elected Reagan and got Prop. 13 on a national scale.

One could blame the high inflation and high interest rates. Nixon and Johnson for setting this up to fail.