Trump v Amazon

President Donald Trump giving Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos an earful.

President Trump is at it again.  *sigh*  His mouth is in overdrive, and his brain is in neutral.  His latest target is Amazon, the retailing behemoth.  Da Prez claims Amazon is ripping off the Treasury by not paying enough taxes, and is cheating the USPS, aka the Post Office, by not paying their fair share for shipping. I'm sure his displeasure has nothing to do with the fact that Bezos also owns the Washington Post, which has some very aggressive investigative reporters who have uncovered all sorts of Trump shenanigans.

Trump says Amazon is costing the USPS billions of dollars, financially breaking an already broke Post Office.  The only problem with that is it's not true.  No less than the Postal Regulatory Commission says the USPS makes a profit from its Amazon business, which subsidizes its other services.  In fact, as I recall, Amazon not long ago made a commitment to help keep the USPS afloat by maintaining or even increasing its business with them.  They had an ulterior motive for doing this, of course:  they didn't want to put all their eggs in only FedEx and UPS's basket. 

Now, about the state and federal government treasuries getting short changed.  Umm, President Trump, would you please show us YOUR taxes?  Have you not taken advantage of all the tax breaks YOU were legally allowed?  Of course you have, but somehow it's not OK if Amazon does the same?  

The truth is, Amazon pays state sales taxes on products they sell in those states where they have an actual physical presence.  In other words, if they have, for example, a warehouse or "Fulfillment Center" in a state, they pay that state sales taxes on everything they sell there.  But if you'll pay attention to Amazon's website you'll see that some of the things you can buy there are actually shipped from independent cooperating retailers, and THEY don't pay state sales taxes if THEY don't have a physical presence in the state they're shipping to.  While it does sound like an end run, it's legal.  Don't like the law?  Take a number....our tax code is hopelessly rigged.  And don't look to congress for a remedy.  They're the rig-ers.

If President Trump wants to pick on Amazon, why doesn't he point out all the local businesses they have helped close down over the years?  Why is Amazon allowed to keep buying up other businesses, like Zappos and Whole Foods, hastening its eventual stranglehold on American consumers?  "Economy of scale" is a double edged sword.  Bigger is definitely better....if you're big.  But if you're a small business, not so much.  It seems to me consumers are just unwitting pawns in their "bigger" game. 

S