I had occasion to order something today from Amazon.ca and I noticed that they charged sales tax. This isn't that much of a surprise, Amazon.com has long claimed they'd be happy to charge tax, they just want a consistent national standard first. Unfortunately, developing such a standard would require legislation and at present our system seems to barely be capable of delivering a handful of complex bills a year so no national solution is likely to happen.
That's all old news, but that leaves consumers with a predicament. The argument that internet commerce needs protection is as outdated as our Borders Reward cards. I think my solution will be that when I'm doing price comparison I'll look at pre-tax prices. That's probably not enough, perhaps I should preferentially buy things from brook and mortar chains or indies. I don't think I'm willing to go full boycott, Amazon's still my go to source for electronic music and stuff not easily available in stores and some of those are good ways to support smaller scale creators.
Maybe rather than making the odd impulse buy of books or more common CDs, I should just keep a shortlist version of my wishlist and try to pick something up at those times when I'm hanging out in bookstores. Given my commute, that isn't as often as it once one, but may still be a way to do my part. Bibliophiles will ultimately need to pay to keep our social spaces, although I'd also gladly by snacks from a library store and am happy that my tax dollars go to that cause.
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