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Which US States are e-Commerce Friendly?
pHaze asks: "I am about to take a long drive across the USA with my girlfriend to try and find a state to live in. We are both professional geeks and plan to settle and start a business. We were wondering if slashdotters could offer some advice on which state is the best to start an e-commerce business in. Which has the most e-commerce friendly/unfriendly laws (taxation, copyright, spam, privacy), the highest availability of broadband (and bandwidth in general) and is the most cost effective for a business."
Sealand is very friendly to e-commerce, I hear.
"Send an Instant Karma to me" - Yes
Taxes are astronomical; the population is inbred, mostly illiterate, extremely lazy and very hostile towards technology; the mountains are ugly; the skiing sucks (ditto the snowmobiling, snowshoeing, mountain biking, camping, hiking, fishing, rock climbing, hang gliding, water skiing, etc. They all suck. Bad. Did I mention they suck? I'm really going to hate snowboarding tomorrow after the load of fresh powder we're supposed to get tonight); DSL and cable modems are unheard of (we just got 56kbps!); the Mormons will steal your wife and force her into a polygamous marriage with some bearded, pot-bellied 90 year-old who already has a harem of 25, every one of them barefoot and pregnant; there is *no* alcohol anywhere in the state, so don't even think of getting a drink; the legislature recently had a special session so they could pass a law legalizing marriages between first cousins... you get the idea -- NOT a place you want to try to start a business, build a home or raise a family. Especially not build a home. Damned housing prices going through the roof... can't hardly even find a five-acre building lot anymore.
Besides, we've got enough problems with all of the refugees from California flooding our lovely^H^H^H^H^H^H horrible state... the LAST thing we want is more people.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
Also, as a followup, it's very interesting to note that Texas does not make this kind of assumption when ordering merchandise via mail-order. They do not collect sales tax on an interstate mail order, but they do on an interstate e-commerce transaction. It's totally fucking bogus.