Logic Costs 6% Extra
One of the websites I frequent on a daily basis is Fark.com, a news aggregation site where people submit links to news stories. While getting my morning fix last Sunday, I came across this little gem.
Ed Lasky asserts that Amazon's better than expected performance during the recent holiday season is a direct result of people's preference to stay at home to shop and to skirt oppressive sales taxes. Lasky openly wonders if high sales taxes (like in Cook County, Illinois - 10.25%) contributed to Amazon's success (comparatively speaking). I'd say it's possible, but highly unlikely.
For example, there are some states, since sales tax is a locally generated revenue stream, that do not impose a sales tax. Oregon is a good example. Lasky admits he would like to see which regions contributed the most to Amazon's sales. Since he does not know for certain, he cannot make the claim that high sales taxes in places like Chicago, New York City, and other large cities contributed to Amazon's holiday sales successes.
What I find most egregious about Lasky's article is his assertion the sales tax many consumers pay has a direct relationship to the collapsing American economy. While sales taxes have been a part of American consumerism for decades (during times of economic feast and famine), it is ludicrous to assert that high sales taxes contribute to the present mess that we find ourselves. Lasky's argument that consumers' "unwillingness" to pay high sales taxes drives businesses into bankruptcy and bloats the unemployment rolls reeks of intellectual dishonesty. There are so many elements that helped create the crisis we face now:
Deregulation of financial institutions have allowed the companies that make up that industry to run it that makes Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme pale in comparison.
The abolition of tariffs allowed companies that make things ship millions of jobs overseas. It's more profitable for a company to make widgets in China for twenty cents each, knowing the company will not pay an extra eighty cents in tariffs because it costs a dollar to make that widget here.
Outsourcing service jobs to India and the Philippines for the same reason why Americans no longer make things.
Sales taxes aren't destroying our economy.
Out of work people who cannot buy anything because they have no steady income and they've overextended their credit can't afford to pay sales taxes anyway.
Ed Lasky asserts that Amazon's better than expected performance during the recent holiday season is a direct result of people's preference to stay at home to shop and to skirt oppressive sales taxes. Lasky openly wonders if high sales taxes (like in Cook County, Illinois - 10.25%) contributed to Amazon's success (comparatively speaking). I'd say it's possible, but highly unlikely.
For example, there are some states, since sales tax is a locally generated revenue stream, that do not impose a sales tax. Oregon is a good example. Lasky admits he would like to see which regions contributed the most to Amazon's sales. Since he does not know for certain, he cannot make the claim that high sales taxes in places like Chicago, New York City, and other large cities contributed to Amazon's holiday sales successes.
What I find most egregious about Lasky's article is his assertion the sales tax many consumers pay has a direct relationship to the collapsing American economy. While sales taxes have been a part of American consumerism for decades (during times of economic feast and famine), it is ludicrous to assert that high sales taxes contribute to the present mess that we find ourselves. Lasky's argument that consumers' "unwillingness" to pay high sales taxes drives businesses into bankruptcy and bloats the unemployment rolls reeks of intellectual dishonesty. There are so many elements that helped create the crisis we face now:
Deregulation of financial institutions have allowed the companies that make up that industry to run it that makes Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme pale in comparison.
The abolition of tariffs allowed companies that make things ship millions of jobs overseas. It's more profitable for a company to make widgets in China for twenty cents each, knowing the company will not pay an extra eighty cents in tariffs because it costs a dollar to make that widget here.
Outsourcing service jobs to India and the Philippines for the same reason why Americans no longer make things.
Sales taxes aren't destroying our economy.
Out of work people who cannot buy anything because they have no steady income and they've overextended their credit can't afford to pay sales taxes anyway.
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