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Amazon Drops California Associates to Avoid Sales Tax
PCM2 writes "Residents of California who participate in the Amazon Associates Program received an email warning them that the program will be terminated as soon as a new California law goes into effect. The law, which CA governor Jerry Brown signed, would require online retailers to collect sales tax on purchases. According to Amazon's statement, 'We oppose this bill because it is unconstitutional and counterproductive. It is supported by big-box retailers, most of which are based outside California, that seek to harm the affiliate advertising programs of their competitors.'"
Come on, even Stallman and the FSF called off their Amazon boycott years ago after being satisfied that the accumulation of patents was for defensive purposes only.
Do you even read what you're typing? At least try and get the facts correct. Free medical has not been that for a long time, with the exception of the unmarried troop on active duty using a military treatment facility. Troops have to pay for family dental for example and once you leave active duty you have to pay for your medical care too. Prescriptions outside the basics genrally have to be ordered by mail for a copay. Free food and housing are not that. There are allowances for these things, but they are based on a standard of living from 40 years ago as to what size place yu might need and never covers all the bills. Child care has never been free.
Normally I don't comment people's sigs, but yours is instructive here. The phrase "question authority" doesn't mean "question authority at a town hall meeting", it means, "question the legitimacy of authority to control you and take your stuff". Similarly, you believe that there are a whole host of things that high income countries have because they're provided by the government. But we're talking about a state sales tax, and you're talking about a list of services that Amazon doesn't get from the state of California:
* Roads used by the U.S. Postal Service to deliver things are paid by gas taxes paid by USPS out of the postage it collects.
* The programmers' education was primarily to their benefit, not Amazons. They're not slaves. And to the extent those programmers got in state tuition, they or their families were taxpayers in that state.
* Federal courts are not administered by the state of California.
* Amazon doesn't need California police since they're not in California.
* California doesn't protect Amazon from (absurdly hypothetical) foreign invaders.
* Since Amazon's warehouses are not in California, so California's firefighters will not be the ones to protect them.
The California government is trying to shake down Amazon. Amazon is right to resist.
Space game using normal deck of cards: http://BattleCards.org
Sorry, spending by the legislature is not CA's problem. Actually, there are many interrelated problems, many of which are a result of Prop 13.
1. Property taxes, which are a generally stable source of income are limited to the point of insignificance. This was sold as a way to protect grandma, but the real beneficiaries are big corps like chevron who are still sitting on the same land they were when it passed. Because property taxes cannot be touched, we have to rely on income and sales taxes, which are inherently unstable and obviously tank when you need them most.
2. Ballot box budgeting, has tied the hands of our legislature for quite some time. We keep passing laws specifying where and how much money must be spent, but without any regard to where the money comes from or to whether there is, in fact, any money to spend.
3. Prop 13 also raised the bar on tax increases to the point where it is virtually impossible to raise taxes at all. It used to be, if the budget stayed within 5% of the previous year's budget, it could be passed with a majority vote. If the budget grew or shrank too much, a super majority was needed. This seems quite logical and effective to me.
4. We pass stupid laws that dramatically increase our prison population without considering the financial impact of housing them.
There are many reasons why CA is in the shape that it is in. Raising taxes and cutting spending are only stop gap measures for what is really needed. The only way CA is going to get out of the shape it's in is to hold a Constitutional Convention. We need to gut and rewrite it in such a way as to be fair, effective and quite a bit more strict as to how it is modified.