The Exercise of Vital Powers

This time its my State Senator David Shafer (R-48). David was instrumental in getting the Republican Liberty Caucus setup here in Georgia and is an all-around nice guy.

Plus he wants to Lower my taxes which always makes me happy.

Ever since the Internet became a shopper paradise – no screaming children, parking woes, and bad Christmas music – there has been a public policy issue that has raised its ugly head time and time again: how to collect sales taxes on purchases made by a resident of Georgia from an Internet site located in Texas by a company based in California and shipped out of a warehouse in Kentucky.

The Internet retailers complain, rightly so, that it is next to impossible for a small shop to keep up and remit taxes to the several thousand different taxing jurisdictions (state/county/city) in the US. Local and state governments on the other hand have tried several heavy handed, and ultimately unsuccessful attempts to collect the money they believe is theirs.

Part of the problem with finding a solution to the Internet sales tax collection issue has been rent-seeking on the part of the brick and mortar retailers. Department stores don’t want people shopping online and those retailers, being more established, have better lobbying ability. Brick and mortar retailers want the government to screw over the Internet retailers because they don’t want the competition.

With the Georgia General Assembly looking at scrapping the income tax with a sales tax increase, the issue of Internet sales will become more of a concern.

Should the General Assembly decide to go down that path, this would be an excellent time for Georgia to become a model for a sane and workable Internet taxing system that doesn’t burden small Internet retailers. Instead of 159 different county rates (plus whatever SPLOSTs and city sales taxes might also exist), Georgia could establish a single state-wide Internet Sales Tax rate. All a retailer would have to do is send the Dept of Revenue a spreadsheet of the Zip+4 and the purchase amount. The DOR would then be responsible for apportioning the sales tax revenue between the counties and state based on a fixed formula.

Internet retailers would send this spreadsheet, along with a check, on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis depending on transaction volume. So an Amazon with millions of dollars of annual sales might send a check monthly, but a small mom-and-pop shop that might sell $15,000 in Georgia would only have to send a check once a year.

So as not to ensnare individuals into having to collect and remit Internet sales taxes, all retailers would be exempt on the first $5,000 of purchases each year. Companies like Amazon would exceed that by about 9am on Jan 1st as gift certificates are redeemed, while someone selling that old couch on Craigslist would never be subject to having to collect and remit the Internet sales tax.

May you all have a prosperous new year.

I think not.

The Wall Street Journal did a piece on On BlackBerry Orphans, children of parents who are totally obsessed with their BlackBerry or Treos.

I’m getting really sick and tired of these “work/life balance” articles. I understand why the media does it. Filling column inches based on the random drivel of so-called experts is pretty easy. Still, there never seems to be much perspective, and what little there is comes in the form of a one line quote from someone interviewed for the story.

In this case the perspective comes from the CEO of RIM (maker of the blackberry) and a 15 year old kid who seems to understand that work equates to earned income.

One of BlackBerry’s biggest defenders, Jim Balsillie, the chairman of Research In Motion, says children should ask themselves, “Would you rather have your parents 20% not there or 100% not there?” ….

Chris DuMont, 15, of San Marino, Calif., recognizes that his father’s habit helps bring in income. “Sometimes when we’re on vacation he’ll be on” his device, Chris says. “But the whole reason we’re on vacation is because he’s working.”

Balsillie’s point is quite valid. In the “good ole days” before cell phones, the bread winner (usually the father) worked late and was never home for dinner. Now, with the availability of cell phones, email, IM and PCs, parents can leave the office at a decent hour, get their kids from school or daycare, take them to soccer practice and still get some work done at home when the kids are doing homework.

Embrace the technology folks.

All that said, we have a major cultural problem in this country with people and their phones. If you and I are having a face to face conversation, don’t answer the phone if its not important. If its your boss or your kid or your wife and you take the call thinking it might be important, but it turns out that it isn’t, tell them you are in the middle of a conversation and you’ll call them back. Don’t make the person standing in front of you wait why you idly chat on the phone.

If a group of friends are at dinner, get up from the table to take that important call. Don’t make the rest of us sit quiet or talk over you. If you can’t safely drive and talk, then send the call to voicemail. I’ve never had any issue telling a non-emergency caller that I can’t talk because I’m driving, or that I’m at dinner and I’ll call back in an hour. Use that caller-id.

Those guys in California, Europe or Japan who can’t calculate time zones and call you during dinner can wait. The project deadline won’t slip because you decided to have an uninterrupted dinner with your kids. Face it, your job isn’t that important, and people aren’t impressed.

And for that matter, get some perspective on the terms important and emergency. At my current job, I’m responsible for systems that if they go down can affect people’s ability to dial 911. That’s important. I’ll leave the table to answer the phone from the office. And if I’m at dinner and people can dial 911, I’ll tell them I’m at dinner and I’ll deal with it later.

1. SCENARIO: Jack pulls into school parking lot with rifle ingun rack.

1973 – Vice Principal comes over, takes a look at Jack’s rifle, goes to his car and gets his to show Jack.

2006 – School goes into lockdown, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers.

2. SCENARIO: Johnny and Mark get into a fist fight after school.

1973 – Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up best friends. Nobody goes to jail, nobody arrested, nobody expelled.

2006 – Police called, SWAT team arrives, arrests Johnny and Mark. Charge them both with assault, both expelled even though Johnny started it.

3. SCENARIO: Jeffrey won’t be still in class, disrupts other students.

1973 – Jeffrey sent to office and given a good paddling by Principal. Sits still in class.

2006 – Jeffrey given huge doses of Ritalin. Becomes a zombie. School gets extra money from state because Jeffrey has a disability.

4. SCENARIO: Billy breaks a window in his father’s car, and his Dad gives him a whipping.

1973 – Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman.

2006 – Billy’s Dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy removed to foster care and joins a gang. Billy’s sister is told by state psychologist that she remembers being abused herself and their Dad goes to prison. Billy’s mom has affair with the psychologist.

5. SCENARIO: Mark gets a headache and takes some headache medicine to school.

1973 – Mark shares headache medicine with Principal out on the smoking dock.

2006 – Police called, Mark expelled from school for drug violations. Car searched for drugs and weapons.

6. SCENARIO: Mary turns up pregnant.

1973 – Three High School Boys leave town. Mary does her senior year at a special school for expectant mothers.

2006 – Middle School Counselor calls Planned Parenthood, who notifies the ACLU. Mary is driven to the next state and gets an abortion without her parent’s consent or knowledge. Mary is given condoms and told to be more careful next time.

7. SCENARIO: Pedro fails high school English .

1973: Pedro goes to summer school, passes English, goes to college.

2006: Pedro’s cause is taken up by ACLU. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against state school system and Pedro’s English teacher. English banned from core curriculum. Pedro given diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he can’t speak English.

8. SCENARIO: Johnny takes apart leftover fire-crackers from the 4th of July, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle, blows up a red ant bed.

1973 – Ants die.

2006 – BATF, Homeland Security, FBI called. Johnny charged with domestic terrorism, FBI investigates parents, siblings removed from home, computers confiscated, Johnny’s Dad goes on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.

9. SCENARIO: Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee. He is found crying by his teacher, Mary. Mary hugs him to comfort him.

1973 – In a short time Johnny feels better and goes on playing.

2006 – Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 3 years in State Prison. Johnny, meanwhile, figures out this is a great way to get out of hard work at school and uses the threat of accusation as he works his way through middle school, high school and college, graduating with honors without writing a paper or taking a test. He is an editor at the NY Times.