As someone who lives near a Best Buy, I’m at Best Buy often," Newsom told reporters during a news conference. “And I’m paying sales tax on a lot of this prewritten software. And then I find out that all my friends that aren’t near a Best Buy, they’re downloading and they are not paying sales tax. How is that fair?”
Are you actually older than Bernie Sanders. Who the actual fuck buys software in a box in a store? I was born in 1980 and I’ve never done this.
Good luck with forcing this on FOSS.
I mean… They’re already basically collecting a 100% tax rate on “free”. They’re ahead of the curve here!
Tax the rich you coward!!
Seriously though, is he trying to fire a salvo in some BS culture war battle? Maybe he thinks taxing software will effectively tax ai?
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.
Gavin is a fuckin chode.
I’ve never heard the term “pre-written software” in my life and I’ve been a nerd for many decades.
lawyers sure are something else with their stupid-ass terms.
This guy is a POS.
“Not fair to those who buy physical software”
What was the most recent fucking calendar year when somebody walked into a CompUSA and bought physical boxed software??
I think I bought Half-Life 2 in box on launch day. So… 2004.
Console video game players, I guess.
I bought Portal 2 in 2011. While it was a box, it was from Amazon, not brick and mortar. I don’t think I’ve ever bought software off a shelf.
Games definitely, but those would have been used.
This is the candidate libs are going to be screaming at you to vote for in 2028. Don’t let him make it past the primary.
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’ll go with Capt. Mark Kelly if he slips in.
the centrist zionist who votes to support “business” over his constituents needs any way he can? I guess if you loved Biden he’s pretty much the same thing. Good luck with that I guess. If all you are voting for is that he’s ex nasa, he’s your obvious choice. But he’s pretty much the same as Newsom then, how do you differentiate them? One is bald and the other not?
Lots of California residents who believed lock downs during COVID were necessary also seem to not care that he, among other politicians gathered at fancy restaurants at the same time
Newsom’s popularity was in the shitter for a reason before he started memeing on Trump.
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.
Yep guy future right then Regan and Democrats are going tell us how he is the answer. This fuckwit is drolling to get to do half the shit Trump is getting away with.
Same play as Mark Carney in Canada. A rebranded Conservative spouting liberal bullshit.
“As someone who lives near a Best Buy, I’m at Best Buy often,” Newsom told reporters during a news conference. “And I’m paying sales tax on a lot of this prewritten software. And then I find out that all my friends that aren’t near a Best Buy, they’re downloading and they are not paying sales tax. How is that fair?”
I agree, its not fair, let’s just remove the sales tax, k? 👍
Also pretty sure no one is buying software from Best Buy in 2026, that would be dumb as hell.
Also I fucking doubt Newsome been anywhere near a Best Buy much less bought software from there.
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.
I think their point may be more thay sales taxes are regressive- they disproportionately impact people with less money, as those people need to spend all or most of what they have for necessities, while folks with a large surplus of wealth or income only need to spend a small portion and much of it can go towards savings or investments
I dont think its unreasonable for someone to say they’d rather just do away with sales tax altogether. We may have more appropriate tools with which to fund the government
Yes, I also read the article.
You all are buying software? I just donate to my friendly neighborhood FOSS Developer.
How else would I get this year’s version of Macaffe Antivirus!
You could always try clicking on some shady links online.
Let me know when your friendly neighborhood FOSS developer creates a CRM or accounting software that doesn’t cost me more in time to get running and figure out how to use than the paid options.
The majority of people cannot easily turn a few hours of their time on a whim into money because most of their working life is pre-scheduled. Others especially those most likely to be able to pick up a shift aren’t paid all that much. I find that ANY new software requires spending time learning in addition to any cost up front. Furthermore most of the paid software would require me to use a worse OS and pay for the privilege so its an awfully hard sell to bother.
As far as accounting software I who simply manage my wages haven’t ever needed anything more complicated than a spreadsheet. What software I’ve seen is kind of obnoxious and terrible so maybe this is an opportunity for someone.
Yeah, our IT department will definitely replace our CRM and Accounting software with some random GitHub projects.
Thanks!
This seems nice https://civicrm.com/
Stop shifting the goal post
Your IT department likely just selects some random vendor that doesn’t really give a shit and puts all your data beyond some bullshit cloud service anyways. That they probably cobbled together from github anyways.
Did you not read? Those are established for-profit companies who also happen to release open-source versions of their stack. They also have hosted cloud versions.
You’re just backing away because you’ve been pointed out to be wrong in your sarcastic bullshit, buddy. Just walk away.
Yeah I didn’t say “when they exist”.
These are also not “free as in beer”.
Also your Big Capital has a .Claude file at the top of it and likewise Twenty has .cursor so LOLOLOL no thanks
I’m not saying these are plug and play, but they are quite literally free as in beer.
AI is definitely problematic. But if you think your paid for software doesn’t use AI in it in the present day, I have a bridge I’d like to sell you.
Why are you against a sales tax?
Sales taxes are regressive. The poorest people pay way more of their income to buy things at stores. Therefore they are getting taxed a lot more than someone who saves money because they have bigger incomes
That actually makes sense, thank you
It’s only regressive when framed as a tax on consumers - which is of course easier to do in a ridiculous country that allows retailers to advertise prices without all the retailer’s costs included.
A properly organised VAT type tax is not regressive - it’s a tax on corporations that buy product for cents and then sell them on for dollars, pocketing the difference. I’ve no idea why sales taxes bring out this “but won’t somebody think of the corporations!” handwringing.
People who downvote someone asking a question is insane. Gods forbid you want to learn something or engage in a dialogue.
Same reasons I’m against most taxes.
How dare the government raise money to fund useless things, like infrastructure, education or social services, right?
Do wealth tax instead!!!
Inequality is the cause of poor living standards. We need higher taxes on inheritance, wealth. And weaker taxes on workers.
As someone that buys software in BestBuy often, I’ve seen Gavin buy the same Turbotax CD-R rougly 13 times. Syke. Then he found out that all his friends don’t buy software in BestBuy.
Greasy Gavin needs to tax his billionaire golf buddies.
Motherfucker.
The only POC that Gavin cares about are People of Capital
He’s really trying to paint himself as something he isn’t by the Trump clowning. The reality is he’s the same thing with less narcissism and dementia. He isn’t the good guy he’s the marginally less bad guy.
I’ve been paying tax on games for years. Digital storefronts had to implement state sales tax after the big Wayfair suit in like 2018.
What software has been ignoring this?
California has an exemption on sales tax for digital delivery. Really he is saying he is going to remove the exemption.
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I don’t live in California. Not sure why you felt the need to repeat the other person, though. The information had already been shared.
Thank god the analog software is still safe
