B&H Photo Puts its Associates Program on Hold, Amazon Terminates Its Associates in California, OWC MPG Program On Hold
Thank you for subscribing to my publications. These are not affected by the recent affiliate legislation described below.
Governor Brown and the California legislature have not only hurts thousands of Californians with recent June 29 legislation attempting to force out-of-state retailers to collect sales tax (an unconstitutional “nexus” assertion), but have at the same time immediately reduced state income tax receipts, since at least 10,000 Californians have just lost all their Amazon.com income (see further below), so they won’t be paying any tax on income they no longer receive.
A big chunk of my income just vaporized.
Remedial math note to Governor Brown: 10% of zero is zero.
It’s not a simple matter of moving a web server out of California, at least not according to my accountant. Nor would moving my home be acceptable to my family, or simple, or less than very expensive.
B&H Photo
B&H Photo has put its affiliate program on hold, but some new arrangement might be possible. Please continue to use this site’s B&H links when buying, as I hope that some other arrangement can be reached.
MPG Pro Workstation program (Macs for photography)
And at this time, my MPG Pro Workstation and MPG Pro Laptop programs, offered through OWC, are on hold for the same reasons as Amazon.
As a result of this we must immediately terminate the MPG program in it's current form.
I hope to continue the MPG Pro programs in some form, but this will take some time to restructure. It was not a small investment to make to get it going, so it’s not just future income, it’s a huge loss of investment capital.
Amazon
See Amazon’s position.
To create real growth and jobs, the government needs to get the hell out of the way. That simple fact is evaded and ignored by today’s politicians and intellectuals. Instead, jobs and incomes are actively destroyed and confiscated, while trillions in fake money are printed to ensure re-election.
This new legislation is so self-defeating that it makes clear the anti-intellectual vacuum in which today’s politicians operate. None of the vendors I work with are agreeing to collect sales tax, but are instead dropping affiliates like hot potatoes. California loses tax revenues, and thousands of Californians lose their income.
It’s insane to have sociopaths running the governorship and legislature. But Californians elect these people, and the cycle isn’t going to be broken any time soon.