diberry - 12:30 am on Jun 12, 2011 (gmt 0)

You can plan for that by moving your family to a more friendly environment for advertisers and affiliates (WHO SELL NO PRODUCTS ANYWAY, uncle sam).

I'm wondering if that'll even be possible. California's legislature passed the bill under Schwartzenegger, who vetoed it, but now they've just passed it again in hopes Brown will sign it because he's a Democrat. Two Tennessee governors promised Amazon no sales tax because Amazon was building fulfillment centers to bring TN lots of jobs, and then suddenly two Republican TN legislators decided Amazon must pay sales tax and have introduced a bill there, declaring that the fulfillment centers are "physical presences". Amazon is threatening to stop building the fulfillment centers and go to Indiana and provide the jobs to them instead. TN people I've read online are not happy - they need the jobs, even if they aren't the best of jobs.

It's not just a few states. It's not just the Democrats. This feels to me like somebody's buying state legislators, and they're going to keep buying them until they get what they want.

But what IS that? Even if Amazon charges me sales tax, they still have lower prices, better selection, free shipping and save me frustrating time in traffic compared to shopping at brick stores. I'll still buy most stuff from them. I doubt I'm alone.

And in any case, these bills won't get Amazon charging sales tax. I am convinced Amazon will shut down the whole aff program (do they even need it?) rather than give in on this. So all Wal-Mart & Pals will have accomplished is: killing Amazon's aff program and lowering a lot of online earners' income. What's the point of that?

Can anybody figure out ANY sensible objective to all this?