By Trevor Burrus, courtesy of the Cato Institute On January 1, 2020, California Assembly Bill 5 (AB 5) went into effect, drastically curtailing Californians’ freedom to work on their own terms as freelancers. The law, which was written by the AFL-CIO, presents many freelancers in the state with only two options: find a permanent employer willing to […]
Tag: California
Will Post-Pandemic California Be More Progressive or More Libertarian?
By Kerry Jackson, Pacific Research Institute From government officials to pundits, we’ve been told the world will be a different place after the COVID-19 lockdowns have been lifted. What, one wonders, will California be like? Will it move even further left? If we’re willing to listen, the pandemic has provided some instructive lessons on […]
Celebrating the Return of the Primitive
By Kerry Jackson, Pacific Research Institute Private automobiles are no longer allowed on Market Street in San Francisco, California. The result has been an increase in bike ridership. This is, of course, being hailed as progress. So why does it look like the city is resetting the clock to a previous century? […]
Gig economy innovators face tough fight against California’s daft AB-5 law
“Uber and Postmates’ Important AB-5 Lawsuit Faces an Uphill Battle” By Trace Mitchell and Jennifer Huddleston, courtesy of the Mercatus Center January 1 did not just ring in a new year and a new decade, it also heralded the start of California’s new worker classification law: Assembly Bill 5 (AB-5). Signed last […]
No, taxing the rich really doesn’t work
By Nicolas Lecaussin, courtesy of IREF and Contrepoints California is becoming the new France. Here we prefer the poor to the rich, and we do everything to tax and punish the well-off. Except it turns out it doesn’t work in California either — in fact it even has the opposite effect. In 2012, […]
California’s AB5 will kill gig economy
New regulation, higher costs, more taxes — that’s how you foster innovation and encourage economic growth, right? Oh right, that’s how you do that other, “killing it off” thing. Well, California’s legislators have embraced the first view, and in their wisdom passed AB5, […]
Trump takes the keys back from California on auto standards
By Mike Palicz, Americans for Tax Reform President Obama’s special waiver allowing California to set and enforce its own greenhouse-gas regulations for cars beyond federal standards has been a complete disaster. California’s waiver from the federal fuel economy rules, the so-called Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, kneecaps […]
Court ruling makes irrigating farmland risky business
A U.S. district court in San Francisco, in its infinite wisdom, has issued a ruling that threatens to make it virtually impossible — or just really, really expensive — for farmers to irrigate cropland. While the ruling currently only applies in California, it sets […]
The Gubernator unloads on Trump for blocking fuel efficiency rules
It’s the battle of the improbable GOP celebrity politicians! Arnold Schwarzenegger, former California governor and star of “Kindergarten Cop” and “Twins,” has penned an op-ed in the Washington Post blasting President Donald Trump for the administration’s move to block California’s vehicle fuel efficiency standards — […]