No Internet Sales Tax

Open email to Congress:

    I am aware that Congress is considering online sales tax legislation.
    I strongly and respectfully suggest that you make every effort to see that this legislation does not come to the floor in either the House or the Senate. If you are unable to stop that, I strongly suggest that you make every effort to see that any bills involving such tax are defeated.
    My main reason for this is based on our objective to reduce the size of government at all levels. Any tax increase only increases the size of government and counteracts our major objective.
    I understand that large retailers, with physical facilities for their sales, pay local real estate taxes and are presumably at a disadvantage compared to Internet suppliers, who do not have physical sales outlets. However, that is the choice they made for their sales efforts, and they have the option of reducing those outlets, if they believe such action will improve their profits. It should also be noted that those same organizations with physical sales outlets operate as well on the Internet. I can purchase goods from Macys, Sears, and Target from my computer, even though many have local stores.
    A little history also puts this into perspective. When I was a boy during the depression, most hard goods was obtained by catalog purchase through the mail. Our main suppliers were Sears Roebuck and Montgomery Ward. Through subsequent years, Sears Roebuck followed the policy of establishing local retail sales outlets. The practice was effective and put Montgomery Ward out of business.
    The situation is now reversed. New technology has again changed opportunity for retail marketing. Those companies who cannot compete, perhaps because of high costs of physical outlets and local real estate taxes, should go out of business. The sales world is a jungle. Only the fittest survive, and those same fittest almost invariably supply better products and service to consumers. There's no reason for Congress to interfere with this process.
    This then returns us to the main point. We do not want increased revenue to any branches of government, which would tend to increase the size and power of those government branches.