Forum Freaks: Soon you can SKIP BUYING GOOKS FROM AMAZON or from any other online seller with the business plan that cheats your local retailer by not collecting and forwarding the legal established sales tax.
Last evening on my way to and from a Mark Twain 175th Birth Anniversary Talk and Discussion I spent more than two and a half hours at bus stops in West and East San Francisco Bay waiting for buses whose runs were skipped due to funding freezes - both systems rely on the sales tax pot to pay for drivers and vehicle maintenance. I would have become discouraged and gone back home after the first hour, except for remembering that I was the one doing the talk, about Clemens becoming Twain in his San Francisco Days.
Libraries are closed another day each week for the same reason - reduced sales tax collections - and the parks are shutting down programs funded from the same pot. Museums and Galleries are shutting down, at least partly for lack of tax support.
This morning I was pleased to read the Wall Street Journal post, via Bay Citizen, that Google´s sales plan will probably involve your local bookstore - BRAVO! PRAISE GOD AND GOOGLE...
Lawmakers in 46 states have been too timid to tackle the "Amazon Tax" issue, which could make most of our communities nicer for us and our neighbors.
I have never bought a book, a device, or a recording from Amazon, and now I need never be tempted.
-Richard R.
Here's the story lead...
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Google Poised To Launch E-Books Project
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Google will launch its e-book venture, Google Editions, by the end of this year, reports the Wall Street Journal. Though the company is coming late to the game – Amazon.com has already cornered 65 percent of the e-book market – Google hopes to gain ground by offering e-books that can be read on any Web-browsing device and purchased from a variety of retailers, including local, independent bookshops. Amazon readers, by contrast, are tethered to their Kindle tablets (or devices running Kindle software) and can purchase books only from Amazon. With e-book sales soaring, the Google venture may provide a way for independent bookshops to survive. "If I don't change with what is going on, I am going to be behind," says Liz Murphy, owner of the Learned Owl Book Shop in Hudson, Ohio, who is interested in working with Google Editions. "People are getting e-books but they aren't getting them from me."
Read original story in The Wall Street Journal | Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2010
Google Set to Launch E-Book Venture
Article By JEFFREY A. TRACHTENBERG, JESSICA E. VASCELLARO and AMIR EFRATI
Google Inc. is in the final stages of launching its long-awaited e-book retailing venture, Google Editions, a move that could shake up the way digital books are sold.
Google's long-awaited Google Editions online bookstore appears closer to coming online. Rex Crum talks with Amir Efrati of the Wall Street Journal about what Google's entry means for the online book market.
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