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And that wouldn't be the end of the world for bricks and mortars retailers now, would it? The UK is seeing the high street decimated with many chains closing s
by philjohn 8y ago
And that wouldn't be the end of the world for bricks and mortars retailers now, would it?
The UK is seeing the high street decimated with many chains closing scores of shops, or closing outright. That's awful for people who can't, or don't want to, shop online - and also leads to less tax being collected on the whole as Amazon et al siphon their money to places where they've managed to strong arm a sweetheart deal.
- theptip 8y ago> That's awful for people who can't, or don't want to, shop online The obvious counterargument is that a 2% increase in cost on almost everybody amounts to a pretty awful amount of disutility when you aggregate across the whole population, and it's regressive as it hits low-income people the hardest. But because of the boiling frog effect, nobody notices that sort of hurt enough to complain about it. I'm not taking a pro-Amazon position here; just pointing out that a gross-receipts tax is a pretty blunt instrument.
- tomjen3 8y agoMeanwhile it hurts people like me who don't like to buy stuff in stores, because they always have a smaller selection and it takes a lot more time.