“Sears has been selling stuff through catalogs for decades. What did Amazon do that was so overwhelmingly better except able to offer lower prices because of the tax discount?”
Service. Have you never used Amazon before? I can’t tell you how many times people I know have been through hell trying to get anything out of Sears.
Besides, an organization without retail stores is inevitably going to have an edge over an organization that has warehouses -and- a large network of retail stores.
And I’m saying all of this as an avowed opponent of Amazon (for technological reasons). I just can’t stand it when people - especially people who claim to be conservative - start trying to make the case for raising taxes in the interest of “fairness,” which is the gist of what you’re saying.
It’s a good thing we have cryptocurrency as a hedge against government intrusion into the Internet. No, Bitcoin isn’t completely anonymous, but there are up-and-coming developments which promise to be closer to it.
It's about trying to eliminate market inefficiencies.
Amazon getting away with not having to collect sales tax while their brick-and-mortar competitors couldn't is a market inefficiency.