Gov't is Making it Hard For The Little Guy Just Trying To Make Chump Change

[38super]

If you were eBay, would you want to lose the customers of an entire state?

 

[Superburban]

I was not accusing ebay over any other online sales site. Any one of them can easily skim off the top, with very little chance of getting caught. Even if they did get caught by a few states, the fine would be way less then they made by skimming.

 

[mmcmdl]

I've been waiting for all this to happen for as long as we've had commerce on the net. But I guess as an acoustic musician I'm used to being bullied. As bad as da guv is unless you've been squeezed by the mafia there are no meaner scarier thugs than ASCAP and BMI. They are the organizations who are supposed to enforce copyrights on music and they basically offer bounties to go around and shake down venues that have live music. We had a little pizza place we played in once a month were lucky to pull min wage for 4hrs ea. One day went by and it was closed. The thugs showed up and said he owed $30,000 back royalties and he just folded and left. We used to have a monthly bluegrass jam in the local Grange Hall where we asked for donations to rent the hall and it got slapped with a royalty and went away. Even though there were no paid performances and they couldn't exactly calculate the percentage of current copyrighted material played. Do you know you are supposed to pay a royalty to sing "Happy Birthday"?

It was bad enough that as a musician your "work" is described as play, but for some reason an acoustic musician is seen as somebody who has no overhead. When I pointed out to a promoter when he wanted to pay us 1/4 what a same size quartet electric band wanted he said they have more invested. He didn't believe me when I said my mandolin cost more than the lead guitar players whole rig, guitar, amp and pedals combined. Justice is an elusive concept.

My brother has been playing for some 55 years in the local establishments in Baltimore . I heard recently he lost a fairly regular gig at Silver Spring Inns for just this reason . No more live entertainment .

On the other hand , gotta love bluegrass . Been listening in for 45 years now .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVl1ibykWZU

If ya can't enjoy this one …………………….well

 

[Susan_in_SF]

Alabama may not ask for sales tax on "some" used goods, but they do ask for it on most The difference as to whether or not a sales tax is due is the number of sales. Like most sates Alabama doesn't tax the "occasional sale". I'm not sure the definition Alabama uses for 'occasional sale, but in Wisconsin it's defined as selling more than 3 items in a taxable category per year.

This definition allows a private party to sell a limited amount of personal goods, i.e. furniture, machinery, appliances, motor vehicles, etc. without being subject to taxes. On the other hand if no taxes were required on any used items it opens the door for abuse. Every sleazy business person would claim whatever they are selling was "used" and therefore not subject to taxes. Millions of dollars worth of high dollar items like motor vehicles, household goods, and machinery could be sold by commercial dealers without paying a cent of taxes.

When internet sales first came along there was a 10 year sales tax moratorium for at least 2 valid reasons. First to grow the business, and secondly because there was no good mechanism to collect the taxes. Online sales now account for nearly 15% of ALL sales across the country. In a time when every level of government is strained for funds it's only natural for them to be looking for new sources, and eliminating as many loop holes as possible. Even if the dollar amount of sales remained static since the inception of the internet that means local and state governments are collecting 15% fewer dollars than before the arrival of the internet. We all know the total amount of sales has not been static, but rather has nearly quadrupled since 2010.

In the next 5 years internet sales are expected to grow by double digit amounts. A recent survey found that 60% of ALL shopping done by Millennials is done online. If this trend continues (and it is expected to) within the next 10 years retail sales from brick and motor stores will no longer the single viable source of income for programs currently being funded by sales taxes.

Yup. That's most likely why stores like Sears and JC Penney will become things of the past...

 

[RJSakowski]

The demise of Sears started long before online shopping hit the scene. A hundred years ago, Sears was a a mail order giant. A person out in the sticks could get virtually eeverything that was needed for day to day life from intimate apparel to a new home. You could purchase the auto parts and tools to completely overhaul an automotive engine or transmission. My replica of the 1915 Tools Machinery Blacksmiths Supplies catalog had 10 different models of machinists lathes with 75 different variations of those.

When I started shopping at Sears in the 1960's their catalog still had a fairly complete line of tools although the line qwas starting to thin. Craftsman tools had a reputation for quality and I purchased many of my early tools from Sears.

In the 1970's, I went into the store looking for lathe tool bits. They sold the lathes but you had to order the tool bits through the catalog. In that same era, I was in their automotive section looking for a fairly commonplace part and unable to find it, told the clerk that I had more parts in my garage than they had in their store.

By the 1990's the tool section of the store had shrunk to about 10% of what it had been. The department was staffed by a woman who must have come from the lingerie department, based on her knowledge of tools. Sears went from one of my go to stores to one that I only went to as a last resort. IMO, someone at the top decided to sell only what sold well rather than stock a complete line of products to meet their customer's needs. On a search for a product, you don't have to be disappointed too many times before you write a vendor off.

Sears had the the opportunity to be the Amazon of online shopping. They had an established network and the purchasing power to make it happen. They dropped the ball big time.

 

[C-Bag]

Yup. That's most likely why stores like Sears and JC Penney will become things of the past...

???????, they are no more AFAIK. Like RJ points out they just quit the model that made them big. The only difference between early Sears and Amazon was you had to order out of a catalog, now you order online. I try my hardest to support local biz and our local Ace hardware store even though tiny knows and stocks what is useful to our tiny community. So many others were not good at stocking anything relevant and would always say "I can order it for you". Thats just plain lazy. And you'd have to be near comatose not to just order it yourself, especially when if you do let them order for you 9 X's outta 10 it never shows and all you get is excuses. Been there.

 

[kb58]

And Kiwi is slang for New Zealanders.

 

[brino]

Sears had the the opportunity to be the Amazon of online shopping. They had an established network and the purchasing power to make it happen. They dropped the ball big time.

Exactly Bob!
Sears should have owned internet sales.

I still use the Craftsman socket set my Dad got me for christmas one year....about 35 years ago....

-brino

 

[hotrats]

I remember Sears in the mid-late 70's , you ordered, then went to the local Sears catalog store (think that's what they were called) and picked up your item. Great. And RJ is correct, Sears could have been the new Amazon. Even better, as they had local "brick & mortar" stores in place....

 

[vtcnc]

Ironically, I just received an Amazon Christmas Catalog in the mail. Really brought back memories as a kid just laying on the floor, watching Saturday cartoons, spilling a bowl of cereal all over the carpet and circling the stuff in the Sears catalog that I wanted on my wishlist.