Amazon is trying to avoid paying state taxes and recently sent a letter to California legislators threatening to pull its affiliate programs if a law passed taxing online commerce. Action hero Arnold Schwarzenneger vetoed the bill. Following the veto, Overstock.com, which had planned to stop using affiliates in California, decided to continue doing business in the largest state.

But bookstores are going out of business. While there’s a lot of problems affecting brick and mortar bookstores, it certainly doesn’t help that their largest competitor is being handed a competitive advantage, not having to pay state taxes.

California has a massive cash shortfall and is slashing state programs, particularly eduction. When Amazon refuses to pay state taxes what they’re really saying is they hate your children.

There are things California can do to save money, like reduce prison terms for non-violent offenders. But ultimately roads and schools don’t pay for themselves. When Schwarzenegger vetoed the Internet tax bill his justification was, “No new taxes.” But people have been paying taxes on books for a long time. The plan to put local booksellers out of business and replace them with monolithic online retailers based in other states is not a plan for healthy growth.

Here’s Arnold Schwarzenegger wielding a knife, after the jump:

Tweet

Related Posts

• The Rumpus Sunday Book Blog Roundup
• The Rumpus Sunday Book Blog Roundup
• On the Inner Workings of Book Recommendations