Internet Taxation and the environment
I’ve never written about anything remotely political before, but ’tis the season and I wanted to make one observation, specifically about internet sales taxes.
Naturally, many states want the ability to collect sales taxes on internet sales.
The economic arguments for and against are all over the net so there’s no need for me to repeat them.
But what I haven’t seen much of yet is the environmental impact of the sales tax ban.
Surely, if internet sales are taxed, there would be less of a price advantage and therefore fewer people will buy on the internet. They may buy more items locally instead.
The downside of this is the fact that more people would be doing more driving in the pursuit of more local sales.
Yes, delivery companies are still driving to our houses, but this is, in effect, mass transit. It is more efficient than everybody driving to every store to buy everything. The same FedEx truck can deliver items to dozens of houses on my street.
I submit that a permanent ban on internet sales tax is friendly to the environment. It would encourage less driving and consequently less emissions.
