There was a reason Yolo County Assemblywoman Cecilia Aguiar-Curry spoke to the Woodland Chamber of Commerce about legislation she is proposing to protect small businesses from “the big guys.”
Aguiar-Curry was at the chamber’s Annual Membership Meeting and spent the majority of her time on Assembly Bill 1776, the “Competition and Opportunity in Markets, for Prosperous, Equitable and Transparent Economy Act.”
It’s one of several bills in the Legislature that targets large businesses, in an apparent effort to update state antitrust laws and outlaw single-company anti-competitive conduct. It would impose new regulations, raise taxes and fees as well as make it easier to sue violators.
It also codifies existing law that targets large firms which seek to “stifle innovation, harm consumers, workers and small businesses,” that in turn, make life more unaffordable in California.
AB1776 stands a very good chance of failing because it’s opposed by special interest groups who are basically making the same arguments we’ve heard before.
Aguiar-Curry was undoubtedly hoping to gain favor with local small business owners, who predominate the Woodland chamber.
Her legislation is backed by unions, some trial lawyers, consumer organizations and environmental advocates.
It’s facing opposition from large business interests, who claim overregulation creates costs that will be passed on to consumers in the form of prices, reduce employment or encourage large corporations to move out of California.
CalMatters columnist Dan Walters – as he usually does – has some excellent background information on AB 1776, writing that it would update a 119-year-old law known as the Cartwright Act, “that prohibits companies from colluding to create monopolies that undermine competition.”
There’s a long list of opponents, including the California Chamber of Commerce, who say it creates a pathway for extensive litigation that would discourage business investment and stifle technological innovation.
AB 1776 is one of the business community’s top targets this year, but not the only one, Walters reports, with the regulation on the use of artificial intelligence taking top priority.
The trouble for me is that I’ve heard arguments for bills like AB 1776 many times before by the same group of people and organizations. Most people probably remember the fight over increasing the minimum wage, which rose to $16.50 an hour beginning January of this year.
Those opposed said it would drive employers out of business, or cause some companies to move elsewhere. The same arguments are now being made regarding the so-called “Billionaires Tax” by some of the same groups.
Earlier this month, I finished the book “Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention,” written by Clara E. Mattei, a professor of economics at the University of Tulsa and founding president of the Forum for Real Economic Emancipation.
The book basically argues that capitalism serves the extremely wealthy and powerful at the expense of ordinary people.
Mattei argues that enduring problems such as poverty, unemployment, and inflation are “not bugs in the economy but core features. They are justified with pseudoscientific models, fabrications built to support a capitalist economy that unfairly rewards people with the most resources.”
She writes that budget cuts, interest rate hikes and taxes maintain the capitalist system that reinforces inequality.
“Governments slash tax collection jobs in the name of balanced budgets, which actually shields the wealthy from tax enforcement and creates budget shortfalls used to justify cuts in social services.
This probably sounds a lot like socialism and maybe it is. But I, for one, am tired of hearing the same arguments from opposing groups and would for once like to see someone working to achieve income equity and equality for people, not corporations.
-Jim Smith is the former editor of The Daily Democrat, retiring in 2021 after a 27-year career at the paper.