this is just reclassifying 'digital' software as taxable. the same as software on physical media already is in california. some states have a similar tax status for these products.

many states already did the same with digital video and streaming.

i don't really see a problem with it.

Also I fucking doubt Newsome been anywhere near a Best Buy much less bought software from there.

You all are buying software? I just donate to my friendly neighborhood FOSS Developer.

Also, what human being has ever said "prewritten software" to describe a video game or an office suite you can buy at Best Buy?

Games are software. People buy a FUCK load of games. If I go to best buy and buy a game I pay sales tax. If I buy the same game online I do not pay sales tax.

I'm in California. This is one of the reasons I don't buy games in stores.

This sounds like something donald trump would say but vaguely coherent

I'm a couple years younger than you, and well as a kid we did buy software from babbages or electronic boutique. I think the last time I bought software for a store was around 2010 at a micro center or something. But that was already a rare occurrence at that point. So as of today it's probably been 16 years since I've done so. I think most of the stores that actually sold software are out of business. So your point is valid.

I'll go with Capt. Mark Kelly if he slips in.

There is no way in hell I would vote for Newsom. I will vote literally anyone else (not that my vote matters much since I am in Cali).

I'm hoping that he won't be the candidate. He might be better than a Republican, but that's the only positive thing I can think of. There are so many better Democratic prospects.

We need something like:

• Unrealized gains are not taxed directly (because that does create issues). But borrowing against them is treated as partial realization, which is taxed. Loans shouldn’t be a way to live without a tax burden. Tax the collateral as a percentage of its value.
• Maybe put the tax on the loan issuer, who can then determine whether or not to raise the loans rates or add fees to offset the burden.
• Instead of taxing gains equally, tax assets according to how liquid they are. Public stocks are high, treasury bonds are high, private businesses are low, primary residence is low, fine art is low.
• Deferred gain with interest. Gains still accumulate without tax. When eventually sold, you calculate interest at sale time. An interest surcharge is added based on how long taxes were deferred.
• Allow equity dilution: Instead of requiring cash, large holders of public companies may periodically transfer a percentage of shares to public treasury.
• Tax luxury expenditure derived from wealth. Private jets, yachts, a fucking social media company… tax the shit out of stuff like that. Use market rate as basis. If a company buys a yacht to lease to the CEO, the company pays the tax.
• Tax publicly traded assets via central clearing systems, on a rate to scale basis. First $50M annual exempt. $50M–$250M tiny rate. … $100B+ steep rate.

You wouldn’t even have to worry about dynastic wealth via step up in basis, after a certain point. So long as you’re effectively taxing wealth along the way.

Honestly… you know what the billionaires say, right? “Move fast, break things.” I wonder how they’d like it, when it’s their things which might break.

Yeah, taxing the average consumer more but refusing to tax billionaires is regressive and dumb as hell. Newsom is a sellout

He works for billionaires. This is just a virtue signal to make it look like he could be taxing AI when really it's a regressive tax that would hurt poor people the most and further save his voter base: billionaires.

So he will never push a genuine wealth tax, but he will push red herrings.

This is mostly a tax in video games. Basically it's an attack on steam.

I'm in California. If I but a game(software) I pay tax if I do it at Best buy. If I buy it on steam I pay no sales tax.

I wouldn't be surprised if 99% of all software bought in stores is just video games.

The only POC that Gavin cares about are People of Capital

California has an exemption on sales tax for digital delivery. Really he is saying he is going to remove the exemption.