On Thu, 17 Jul 1997, Tim May wrote:
Taxes are already essentially uncollectable, even in interstate transactions, so the moves by Summers and Magaziner are truly token gestures.
Uh, Tim, corporate and personal income taxes are still rather well collectible, and that my be the reason the federal gov't doesn't worry too much about taxing the Net. State, and even more so local, gov'ts do not have the same collectibility advantage. And the locals are often revenue-starved and constantly in search of new tax base, constantly. Thus, what's easy for the feds to say ("no new taxes" read my lips?:)) is just a costless slam at the locals. No real impact on federal revenue, no sacrifice, no altruism, except at the expense of other potential, and hungry taxing authorities. Magaziner didn't earn any points with me by proclaiming a policy that doesn't cost his end of the gov't much of anything. It's as if George III told the colonies not to tax tea. MacN