Memo to Amazon: Pay the Sales Tax & Put Everyone Else in E-Commerce Six Feet Under

We revere Amazon, and generally try not to give other companies advice. But does anyone know why Amazon doesn’t give up the state sales-tax fight and station its monstrous fulfillment space-ships over every major American city? Benefits:

1. Deliver everything same-day including groceries the way it does here in Seattle
2. Go after UPS, using its analytical super-powers to banish left turns
3. Hire a national salesforce for Amazon Web Services, to help the folks wearing head-sets in south Lake Union beat Microsoft & Google
4. Restore profitable, risk-free affiliate marketing partnerships with folks in 100 cities
5. Rent books & take out Chegg, which requires a local presence
6. And go into a dozen other businesses it has passed on to avoid being local

Cost:  8% – 10%, paid by your customers, to build schools, parks and roads.
Amazon’s operations people are total beasts, and its insistence on remaining Seattle-bound for tax purposes is the chain holding ’em back. Pay the tax! Unleash the hounds! The day Amazon concedes this issue will hereafter be remembered as its independence day.