Whose responsibility is it to fix state budget crises? Is it Amazon’s?
There are people in the fawning corporate media who think that the Amazon is one of the reasons that states are having so much trouble with their budgets.
That is the attitude of at many members of the corporate media elite. They are putting out editorials in the mainstream press that basically get their readers to focus on Amazon’s role in state budget disasters, and not the many politicians who were in charge of these budgets.
Here’s just a small example of the arguments of the corporate media in this whole Amazon state sales tax issue. I originally caught wind of the corporate media’s outrageous position from reading an editorial piece on the corporate media newcomer, The Huffington Post.
The Huffington Post has long been known as a mouthpiece for socialist liberals.
But AOL owns them now so everything that made them special to liberals will be gutted in order to tow the corporate line.
That means that the HuffPo won’t actually be changing much. In fact it means that the socialist liberal stuff will be ramped up in order to steer the liberal agenda more towards economic totalitarianism. The corporate media loves to push flawed economic theories on their users.
So it was no surprise to see the HuffPo run an editorial where the author thinks that private wealth is public resource. He makes a bunch of arguments that in supposedly debunk a bunch of long held economic myths. But basically all he is saying is that Amazon should be responsible for helping solve state budget problems by charging their customers state sales taxes.
The other article I came across was from today. It came from The Boston Globe, another big media rag which is owned by The New York Times. So again, it’s no surprise that this Beantown establishment mouthpiece wants to act like Amazon created the state budget problems. They claim that Amazon is benefitting from unfair advantages, and that it’s their fault that the local mom and pop stores cannot keep up.
The corporate media wants there to be a level playing field for retailers in the states.
All Amazon is really doing right now with the taxes is following the law. Right now there is no law set in stone the deals with online retailers and taxes. Some states are trying to pass laws to force Amazon and other online retailers to pay taxes.
The problem I have with all of these calls for taxes on Amazon, is that they claim Amazon has an unfair advantage because they have a tax exemption and local businesses have to pay it. What’s the easiest solution to this problem?
Grant everyone a state income tax exemption.
Does that sound crazy to you? Does it sound wacky? How fair is it for politicians and their cronies in corporate media to say Amazon is the reason the budgets are jacked up? Is Amazon in charge of the budget in the state you live in? No, politicians are in charge of that.
And that’s why all of this is so stupid. The establishment, or the “state” as some political scientists call it, thinks that they have a right to the wages and productivity of everyone in the private sector. And anytime their plans backfire, politicians in every state rush to call for more taxes on the people who drive the economy, the private sector.
To be honest we should all be tired of seeing our private wages being taxed so much. Isn’t funny how when they talk about budget crises in the states you hardly ever hear them talk about fiscal restraint. The state wants you to think they can fix any problem there is, but they can’t.
So don’t screw with Amazon just because they are a convenient enemy. If politicians and the corporate media are so concerned with the little being able to compete with Amazon, then let the little guy be exempt from state sales taxes too.
Let the politicians find another way. Make them earn their paychecks and the generous benefits that taxpayers pay for.
