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California Just Passed A $1 Billion Tax On The Whole Country That No One Noticed
zero hedge ^ | 9/2/16 | Tyler Durden

Posted on 09/02/2016 10:59:55 AM PDT by Nachum

The California State Assembly recently passed a bill that received minimal recognition by the press, outside of the state, but has substantial negative consequences for basically everyone in the country. Once signed by Jerry Brown, the bill, known as AB 1066, will make California the only state in the entire country to provide overtime wages to ag workers after 8 hours a day or 40 hours per week. This change will add about $1BN annually to the cost of growing food in California which will ultimately be passed along to consumers. And since eating isn't really optional, this is effectively a $1BN tax that California has decided to levy on the entire country. Worse yet, increasing food prices is essentially the most regressive form of "tax" possible given the disproportionate share of wages spent on food by low-income families. And, while you may not know it, California is an agricultural powerhouse that produces roughly 1/3 of all vegetables consumed in this country and 2/3s of the fruits and nuts.

Now, we know what you're thinking...why would everyone be entitled to overtime pay at 40 hours per week except farm workers? Well, there is logic behind the exclusion and it has to do with the seasonality of farming. Unlike most industries, farmers are not able to spread their labor needs throughout the year due to harvest schedules and the perishable nature of their crops. But farm workers aren't the only ones excluded from overtime pay. In fact, California has established special overtime rules for hourly workers in a number of other highly-seasonal sectors, including firefighters, actors and ski-resort employees, to name a few.

As you can see from the chart below, the total number of people working in the ag industry in California spikes by about 33% starting in May every

(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: agriculture; california; food; taxcalifornia; taxes
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To: M Kehoe

Every law or regulation that any company in the U.S. is mandated to effect, results in a cost that is passed on to the consumer - irrespective of local, state, or national distribution.


61 posted on 09/02/2016 3:09:19 PM PDT by pilipo (We are not free.)
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To: Buckeye McFrog
They underlying premise of this article is pretty dubious. Wages for providers of goods and services which are shipped interstate do not constitute "taxes" on those interstate buyers. Period.

Anybody who thought about this for just 2 sustained minutes would realize that.

Note that I am not commenting one way or the other on the propriety of the State of California mandating those overtime wages. That's a separate issue. I'm just saying that paying people overtime wages when they work overtime, is not inherently a taxation-without-representation on consumers. Market forces are still at play, and still the overwhelming determinants of economic behavior.

Higher total incomes for agricultural workers may speed up the robotization of farmwork, though. It's coming.

62 posted on 09/02/2016 5:40:37 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (Just the facts, ma'am, just the facts.)
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To: Persevero

I agree. It’s a matter of justice.


63 posted on 09/02/2016 8:45:33 PM PDT by Patriotic1 (Dic mihi solum facta, domina - Just the facts, ma'am)
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To: Nachum

Interesting bill # on the 950th anniversary of the Norman invasion of England and October battle of Hastings...


64 posted on 09/02/2016 9:41:41 PM PDT by Axenolith (Government blows, and that which governs least, blows least...)
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To: trisham
I'm not sure if I can say and not sure if I really know what they are working towards at this point.
I just completed a system that will be used to teach the computers to identify weeds using facial recognition software.
I believe that the elimination of a large force of manual farm labor will eventually be inevitable.
Doubt if I will live long enough to see that though.
65 posted on 09/13/2016 1:35:58 PM PDT by Falcon4.0
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