

Amazon's Scorched-Earth War Against the Rest of Us - dclaysmith
http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2011/07/amazons-scorched-earth-fight-against-everyone

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billswift
>a judge who, more often than not, is no fool.

And who, like other government employees, is paid by taxes, including sales
taxes. In any other area of life, including business ethics, that would be
considered a conflict of interest.

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BillSaysThis
But that would mean no judge or other government employee could make any
decisions related to taxes (and probably other decisions affecting their
pocketbooks or work environment) and as such be a ridiculous and impossible
condition. Unless, billswift, you're a libertarian and just want to do away
with all government, then your comment makes complete sense.

~~~
billswift
Actually, I just wish people would recognize the reality. The important thing
is that people don't fool themselves about the need to protect themselves and
to be watchful of government power. Most people chant "separation of powers"
like a mantra without realizing how much more the "separate powers" have in
common.

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viggity
I'm totally on Amazon's side on this. There is this little thing in the
constitution called the commerce clause, and any state that is going to try to
force you to collect their sales tax even though you don't have any physical
presence in the state is violating Congress's sole authority to tax interstate
commerce.

To say that an affiliate counts as a physical presence is preposterous, Amazon
and the affiliate have a business arrangement, Amazon doesn't own the
affiliate. If anything it is a Customer-Vendor relationship (Amazon to the
Affiliate). It is as ridiculous as Georgia insisting that Amazon collect sales
tax because the books they sell came from trees grown in Georgia.

