Posted on 08/16/2017 4:03:29 AM PDT by SMGFan
Amazon is doing great damage to tax paying retailers. Towns, cities and states throughout the U.S. are being hurt - many jobs being lost!
I’m always shocked we felt the need to reinvent this wheel for internet commerce. My family was in mail order in the 70s and 80s, the laws were well defined and easily followed: if the company had a physical presence in the sales tax zone sales tax had to be charged, if no the buyer is supposed to self confess on their income taxes. It was right there on the mail order form “residents of blah, blah, blah add x% tax”. Internet commerce IS mail order. All the same rules should have applied, but somehow the world got snowed under by the .com boom and thought it was a brand new thing needing new rules.
Actually, though, a lot of independent people make a nice living selling on Amazon FBA.
Actually, that is the danger.
The left working like termites undermining everything. Joe Six Pack is oblivious.
Good point, but I think some of the confusion is understandable because many people don’t see the relationship between a Sears catalog and a Sears department store the same way they see the relationship between an Amazon website and an Amazon distribution center where no customers ever conduct business. Heck — I’ll bet most people who have an Amazon distribution center in their state aren’t even aware that it’s there.
I think the key is not taking to the streets against a very small group of hard-core leftists but eroding the influence of establishment media that are propping them up and overstating their influence. Trump's victory in November, despite 1 1/2 years of desperate 24/7 hostile media coverage against him, tells me we are making progress. People across America are tuning the establishment media out. We need to continue that trend.
I think what he’s talking about is that the Washington Post sucks.
The tax issue, I believe, involves retailers who use the Amazon platform to sell goods. I honestly don’t know how this works because I’ve only ever ordered directly from Amazon. If I want a specific retailer, I usually use Ebay.
I don’t think those retailers always collect sales tax.
I have to imagine this is a drop in the pocket though.
Trust me, I live in Texas. An online retailer that doesn’t charge Texas sales tax (8.5 percent) would probably get ALL of my business.
I think the fundamental problem here is that I don’t think Trump really has an agenda. He has a fairly large number of vague campaign promises - some more specific than others. Even now, we are debating exactly what he means by a Wall. Some people want an actual physical wall from the Pacific to the Gulf. Sometimes, he seems to want that. Other times, it’s virtual. Other times, it seems to be metaphorical. (His words are the wall). Tell us what the damn wall is supposed to be.
Health reform is the great example of this. What did Trump want? He wanted a bill that provided “great” healthcare “for everyone.” What does that mean? No one knows.
Reagan knew what he wanted the tax code to be, why he wanted it that way, and what the end result would be. He knew what our position regarding the Soviet Union was.
To his credit, Obama understand Obamacare backwards and forwards. He knew who he was paying off in the Senate, how and why. He knew how to sell it to the public (or at least to his base).
I know Trump wants manufacturing jobs. I don’t know how this is going to happen. And frankly, I want to know how this will impact me. I like buying a state of the art Chinese tv for $600 or whatever. Am I going to get a slightly worse tv for $1000 going forward? Do I have a vote on this?
I have a 9’8” kayak that fits inside my van.
I paddle awhile and then rest...... slaying bluegills with my flyrod.
The reason for paddling is the exercise. I try to go twice a week
As for his other campaign promises, we are seeing inroads with ISIS being destroyed, manufacturing plants being built in the USA, coal mining coming back, energy independence, overall economic growth, etc. Establishment media will not be giving Trump any credit for any of that anytime soon.
Tackling health care as one of the first items was probably a tactical mistake but that saga is still playing out. It's probably too soon to consider that a failure. Personally, I think Trump overestimated the support he would get from his fellow Republicans. Disappointing. Also, I think Trump underestimated just how corrupt and deep the swamp really is.
Trump has my admiration for putting himself out there and taking on this enormous job when he could have just sat on the sidelines and retired in luxury with his billions. I feel that when his presidency is all said and done (hopefully eight years), he will be seen as one of the great ones. Remember that Abraham Lincoln was extremely hated by much of the country during his presidency as well.
He gets a huge shipping discount thst should be banned .
There are a few in town I know .
But the locals use them intentionally .
I know i use them even if a few more dollars
What are you doing there? I worked in Rockefeller Plaza forever. I think you commute to New York City but I am not sure. Nice to know :) and with all the internet news getting out so quickly you could very well be right. I guess I am more concerned about impeachment over nonsense because the GOP has no spine
And, Sears could have easily been Home Depot, Lowes, Best Buy etc. This is why management with vision that never rests on current success is so important.
Amazon is frigging awesome, super convenient, and forcing them to collect state sales taxes is unconstitutional.
We are very fortunate to have a president like Donald Trump in these times. He has nerves of steel and just doesn't give a flying you know what about the enemies arrayed against him. Any other Republican president would have backed down, bent the knee to the left, and continued the slide downwards. I guess anything is possible but I don't see any grounds for impeachment .This whole controversy is ludicrous and the GOPe willingness to get in league with the fascists of the left tells me just how close we came to losing our nation forever.
Great post and I Was going to say CT as we have had this discussion before but I wasn’t quite sure :)
What you say is true but NYC can be a tough place.
There were quite a few times after my head injury where I would literally get on my knees going to work and maybe hundreds of people would walk by without asking if I Was ok lol.
I understand. There are nuts in NYC and maybe I was setting them up, maybe it was a scam, they’re not so much uncaring people as they are wary, and they have a right to be to some degree.
But I LOVED manhattan when I worked there.
Now I’m on staten island. 5 minute commute instead of 90 minutes, but i missit :)
Trump is a VERY GOOD man. MUCH deeper and stronger than I thought before his whole campaign started.
Stop Amazon and evil Bezos .
I avoid them .
We will not use them period .
I think there needs to be a National campaign to stop Bezos .
He is a dangerous evil man using his newsletter to push his Globalist Hell .
Yes Amazon as a company is great, but their owner is my enemy and wants me dead. I used to be a steady customer of theirs. I decided about a year ago that I’d rather spend a little more and do my part to starve that beast.
Are you fly fishing them?
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