This alone should disqualify him from consideration

All together in one, controllable space

Mayor Pete likes California’s gig-destroying AB5 law, and vows to impose it on the entire country.

I’ve been following this law since it was enacted last September and especially since it became law January 1st. In fact, I have two separate drafts of posts that I’ve meant to finish and publish. Sold to the public as a way to destroy “just” Uber and Lyft, it’s actually a union-sponsored measure aimed at the entire gig economy, and it’s already destroyed the livelihood of thousands of independent writers, musicians, stagehands, and script writers and it’s projected to eliminate hundreds of thousands more jobs in the near future. A federal version will kill millions of jobs.

I know a number of Uber drivers, and have spoken to more, and they all want to be independent because they want the freedom to work their own hours, when and where they like. AB5 requires that be hired as employees, with full-time, scheduled work hours, and to pay for health insurance and other expenses they either don’t need or want. And employers, rather than take the hit of taking on employees they can’t afford, are simply firing them. Vox, which cheered the passage of the las last September, laid off all 200 of its California writers in December.

And it’s hitting women especially hard. Turns out, there are a number of women writers who preferred to stay home and care for their kids while earning money part-time. One such affected woman complains that she used to pull in $20,000 per year and has now been forced out of the market place entirely: companies won’t use the services of California residents.

Laws like California’s are already being pushed in New Jersey and New York and probably other states I’m unaware of. It’s all about unions and yet another expansion of governmental control of the populace. No wonder it’s so popular with the Leftists.

Here’s one of my rough-draft posts, unedited:

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it, good and hard. H.L. Mencken

January 14, 2020 Chris Fountain

California’s assault on the gig economy hits home. [Written by a very liberal Californian, director of a non-profit art organization]

The live music sector, the progenitor of the term “gig” work, is being swept up by this law. The irony would be comical if it were not such a serious problem.

There are some worthy arguments to be made for Assembly Bill 5 by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, San Diego Democrat.

It could improve the lot of workers trying to piece together a living in this expensive state. It should help capture unemployment taxes from unscrupulous employers misclassifying workers as independent contractors. 

However, the law has created a tangle of red-tape and administrative expense for large portions of California’s cultural sector.

To illustrate: In 2019, San Jose Jazz presented more than 1,000 musicians across 326 different performances. The vast majority were independent musicians and singers from California, the nation, and around the world. 

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics defines musicians under code, 27-2042 Musicians and Singers. This is distinct from the category for Fine Artists, 27-1013 Fine Artists Including Painters, Sculptors, and Illustrators. 

For some big name acts, we contract with their corporate agent and pay the agency for the band’s performance. However, for most musicians, we work directly with the band leader to agree on a price and terms, providing them payment as independent contractors. They, in turn, pay their band members in accordance with IRS Schedule C filing rules.

Under AB 5, we will be required to inform all U.S.-based musicians that they must now become employees of San Jose Jazz, or incorporate themselves before they will be allowed to perform for us. 

If band leaders choose to pursue incorporation, they will then need to take on the responsibility of payroll and HR administration for the rest of their band.

In many performing arts disciplines, such as jazz, musicians are constantly reconfiguring line ups, performing as sidemen in various bands, and as one-time special guests for specific performances. 

We will now be obliged to devote tremendous time and resources to constantly hiring, managing and tracking of musicians through this cumbersome process. 

AB 5 unnecessarily complicates other work arrangements found in community cultural programming such as small festivals, neighborhood street fairs, parades and summer music series in our local parks. 

San Jose Jazz is best known for producing our large Summer Fest which brings tens of thousands of visitors and requires hundreds of temporary roles to execute. 

The vast majority of previously contract work roles will now be required to be employees. 

For instance, we are required by the City of San Jose to hire off-duty police officers through their Secondary Employment Unit program to insure a safe and well-run festival. Under AB 5 we will be required to classify these moonlighting officers as San Jose Jazz employees with the attendant oversight and administrative requirements. 

Typical of such legislation, AB 5 comes with a hefty list of exempted categories that are a Who’s Who of the politically connected and well-funded: lawyers, doctors, accountants, brokers, builders, and others. 

Actors, choreographers, dancers, directors, producers, and musicians are among numerous roles in the performing arts that exhibit a multitude of contract work arrangements. None of these are exempt from AB 5’s rules. 

The cultural sector is full of various work arrangements, some as employee others as contractor, that have evolved over decades to accommodate artist’s unique crafts and artistic products and services. AB 5 runs roughshod over all of these arrangements.

Beyond the financial, legal, and administrative mess created by AB 5, communities face even more profound threats from the new law. Segments of our cultural and civic life are at risk of going out of existence. 

Non-equity theaters, music venues and jazz clubs, dance companies, small cultural festivals of all types face very real threats to how they organize their work arrangements.

The cavalier approach by which Sacramento adopted this legislation opened a Pandora’s box that will chip away at California’s cultural life. 

Perhaps our legislators will begin realizing the implications of AB 5 when they start organizing and staffing their next campaign or political rally, and find that they, too, must deal with the mess they created.

California freelancers sue to block law that’s destroying their jobs

And another Mencken quote:

 Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.