Saving Face on the Amazon Internet Sales Tax Flap

Just 48 hours ago, the online retailer Amazon was doing battle against California to save the new economy from the tyranny of taxation. They were spending millions on a referendum to block a piece of the budget. They were fighting off a supposed legislative dirty trick to prevent such a referendum. And they were arguing that high principle and jobs were at stake.

Now, well, in the words of the 20-year-old Nirvana album: Never mind.

Amazon’s deal to end its referendum – in exchange for a one-year delay before it begins paying sales taxes – was designed to save face. But this was a deal in the same way that the deal the Japanese signed on the U.S.S. Missouri was a deal. It was a surrender, by an utterly vanquished company.

Has any company so bungled relations with a state?

I never did understand the referendum gambit and felt that Amazon.com would be more successful in federal court.

But, then again, I did not know about the 7/11 store distribution plan either. In the end, it was simply about money and not principle.