Had the “for hire” election initiative signature collectors in front of my Peets last month,
collecting signatures to block the CA tax internet sales initiative. I asked them why they
want Amazon to have such a competitive advantage over the stores there in the same
strip mall. They hire people in locally and they pay taxes here.

It is sad that the big box stores have decimated locally owned hardware stores,
bookstores, etc. But they did it by fashioning more cost effective supply chains. Amazon
is doing it by relying on tax code that should not be on the books in 2011.

Amazon is a notoriously exploitive employer. These won’t be good jobs.

I boycott amazon.com for a number of reasons, but I have to say, their refusal to pay sales taxes really angered me.

So basically jobs are created if the state bows down to corporate demands? What a stellar democracy!

Another spectacle of corporate control over sovereign government.

There should be no deal making. What should happen is governments should pass laws that are quite clear in their scope and intent. No more gray area crap. Online sales will be taxed. It is just a question of who. This agreement depends on a totally dysfunctional Congress.

But then, those politicians would not be reelected if they were a little more black and white.

For there is one necessary ingredient in any dysfunctional relationship: chaos

This is the same sort of corporate “extortion” that plays itself out in WA State where Boeing pays virtually NOTHING in taxes because it “creates jobs.” Boeing has always claimed a “job multiplier” to justify not paying to be here. The theory goes like this: for every Boeing job thre are 7 ancillary jobs created in the local economy. Funny thing is Boeing has been attempting to LOWER wages and benefits to its workers for years. Does this mean that if fewer multiplier-jobs are created, then Boeing will start paying taxes?????

The fact is, these large corporations are simply waiting for the day when all of their operations have moved to greener pastures (e.g. where they can pay virtually nothing in labor costs offshore). At that point, all of our tax subsidies to them will be yet more hard-earned capital washed down the toilet.

So.. they’ll be good citizens if they are paid to be?

Or.. ‘we’ll create as many jobs as the other taxpayers are willing to pay for’?

Great deal making, California.

Adios.