Friday, March 12, 2010

6 Comments:

Blogger Topher said...

This is an old story with a new plaintiff - these games of tax chicken were played in New York and North Carolina. Don't look now, but Amazon - hardly a camp of hardcore Libertarians - is going Galt on this issue, refusing to take part in onerous bureaucratic nonsense.

Columinst Mike Litwin, quoted in the post, is absurd; he claims Amazon is "evil" for using "mom and pop stores as human shields."

I'm sure there's a philosophical term for someone who undertakes a destructive course of action, then blames someone else for getting out of the way of said destruction. I think "chutzpah" suffices for now.

10:02 AM, March 12, 2010  
Blogger Larry J said...

Once again, politicians failed to understand that people and companies can change their behavior in response to increased taxes. That is the continued fallacy of those who believe in static scoring for revenue calculations. They believe that if you raise the tax rates, people will simply comply and fork over more money without complaint. Instead, people can and often do change their behavior in response to changing rates. When the tax rates increase, they may cut back on their purchases or work hours. When the rates decrease, it's worth their while to work more because they actually get to keep a higher percentage of what they earn. That's why tax rate reductions usually lead to an increase in tax revenue collections. Imagine that.

10:16 AM, March 12, 2010  
Blogger Dr.Alistair said...

www.adventuresinlegalland.com

fighting bureaucrats and unreasonable taxation for years.

2:02 PM, March 12, 2010  
Blogger Dr.D said...

In a sense, this is almost comic to see the Leftist at Amazon fighting the Leftists in the Colorado legislature. Pass the pop corn!

We see, however, that the Leftist at Amazon have been tainted by learning to like money, so suddenly they are not only about the "good causes" of the Left. Profit becomes important, and governmental red tape is a problem for them. They begin to look like businessmen. Whoa!! Too funny!

The only really sad part is the little people, the Associates, who were relying on this for part of their income.

5:07 PM, March 12, 2010  
Blogger ChrisA said...

I guess living in Boulder this doesn't surprise me in the least. With Democrats controlling the statehouse it surprises me even less.

One has to wonder if the politicians actually believed the state would ever receive a penny in revenue from this legislation. I can only wonder so much as my mind simply doesn't work like theirs. Damn good thing.

10:11 PM, March 12, 2010  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Put aside the bluster about Leftists. Amazon is in the biz to maximize profits and it does what it takes, always, to do so. Right or Left all do this and labels are meaningless in the money-making game.

5:49 PM, March 13, 2010  

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