It has been said that capitalist societies are so successful, they need to build walls to keep people out whereas communist societies are such failures, they need to build walls to keep people in.
And radical, remorseless California is proving that axiom true in its bid to become the Turkmenistan of the Western Hemisphere.
Calif. State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-Dist. 11, introduced the "Blocking Anticompetitive Self-preferencing by Entrenched Dominant platforms Act" (BASED Act), which aims to restrict the operations and marketing of American tech companies.
The bill was largely viewed as a direct copy of Europe's Digital Markets Act, which adds regulatory burdens and costs to American tech companies.
Wiener and his fellow proponents claim that these companies shut out small businesses, but it seems like they do the opposite.
Thankfully, the BASED Act failed this month to pass the California state Senate's Privacy, Digital Technologies, and Consumer Protection Committee, even though it is led by a Democratic chairman.
The measure faced skepticism from Democrats on the Committee, who urged the proposed bill would make "using online services much harder" and ultimately voted to kill it.
Even in one of the most liberal states and legislatures in the country, adopting EU regulations was deemed too far – which is a rare bit of good news out of the Golden State.
According to a study from the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council, 74% of small businesses say these same large digital platforms make it easier to compete with larger firms.
For Weiner to target large technology firms with costly governmental attacks doesn't just hurt those particular firms; it reaches businesses of all sizes throughout the economy, including those very small enterprises the bill claims to protect!
While Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., has been the lightning rod for so much criticism about California's radicalism, Wiener – the bill’s sponsor – Seems to be appreciably delusional.
He has been called:
California's most radical legislator.
His record of supporting questionable legislation includes:
—Removing mandatory sex offender registration for certain sexual acts involving minors.
—Decriminalizing loitering, which reportedly led to an explosion in sex trafficking of minors.
—Making California a transgender "sanctuary state" that encouraged minors to seek mutilation in the state.
The horribly misnamed BASED Act is just the latest in a long catalog of policymaking that is making California an impossible place to run a business.
The once Golden State, already has one of the highest top corporate tax rates (8.84%) and also the highest top personal income tax rate, (13.3%).
These uber-woke policies are chasing businesses away, including Chevron, Bed Bath and Beyond, Anheuser-Busch, X (Twitter), and SpaceX.
The mass blue-state exodus has been a mixed bag for the rest of the country.
From 2010 through 2023, about 9.2 million people flew California, while only 6.7 million moved in – causing California to lose a congressional seat for the first time in its history.
This is particularly bad for California’s tax base when it’s chasing away its billionaires.
The mayor of Dallas switched from the Democratic Party to the GOP as a sign that his city would gladly welcome any business fleeing California or New York.
California was once the best thing that had ever happened to the world.
Think of how much of our entertainment and new technology has come from California in the last 100 years – maybe more than the rest of the world combined.
California earned its fabulous wealth but lost a lot of wisdom along the way.
It's like when Tyrion said on Game of Thrones, "A lifetime of outrageous wealth hasn’t taught me much about managing it."
Newsom refers to his state as the "fourth-largest economy in the world," a brag which is somewhat specious to begin with, but also unsustainable if it keeps driving its industry to greener pastures in red states.
Newsom tends to downplay his states awful rankings for income inequality, quality of life, and debt.
Los Angeles – which even The New York Times called a third-world country – is a nightmare of gang violence, homelessness, and pollution.
California can continue down the path of regulatory overreach, high taxes, and radial, or it can get serious about why businesses keep leaving for Texas, Florida, Utah, and Tennessee.
This isn't Turkmenistan, and they can't build a wall to stop people from leaving (well, not yet anyway).
Policymakers who want to help small businesses did the right thing with the BASED Act: punishing the platforms that level the playing field for entrepreneurs is hardly progressive.
Jared Whitley is a longtime politico who has worked in the U.S. Senate, White House, and defense industry. He has an MBA from Hult business school in Dubai. In 2024 he won the Top of the Rockies Best Columnist award. Read more Jared Whitley Insider articles — Click Here Now.
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