The Internet and Taxation A 19-member panel unknown to virtually all Americans is considering how to tax a virtual world that's home to millions: the Internet. The federal Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce convened for the first time Monday in historic Williamsburg, Virginia, but the setting is the only thing that's serene. On both sides of the debate, fireworks have been flying for months. On one side are consumers and businesses that buy and sell on line. Most of their transactions go across state lines, and sales taxes are not collected. They say imposing sales taxes on the Internet could stifle growth in an industry that is helping to drive the U.S. economy, and taxes could drive Internet firms overseas. On the other side are traditional retail merchants who collect sales taxes and the governments that rely on those taxes to pay for police, schools and roads. The retailers are losing business to the tax-free Internet. That cuts into the 36% of state and local government revenue that comes from sales taxes. The commission's task is to recommend changes to Congress that both sides can live with. It is faced with the current system of more than 3,000 state and local sales taxes. And the products that are taxed, such as food and clothing, vary from state to state. For that reason, the panel, might consider something as radical as a national sales tax. Its recommendations are due to Congress in April 2000. ''America is a world leader in information technology. We are at the cutting edge of Internet commerce, and we want America to maintain that position of leadership,'' says Virginia Gov. James Gilmore, the commission chairman. The debate will affect ''every human being, every potential customer, everyon... ...ead, marketing vice president for the Los Angeles-based research firm, were the lengths to which online shoppers would go to avoid taxes. Twenty-four percent said they would bypass well-known retailers that charge sales levies in favor of unfamiliar merchants that don't, to save on taxes. "That's a real indication of the concern about taxation," she said. Richard Wolf, Billions of dollars hang over Internet tax debate. , USA Today, 06-22-1999, pp 01A. J. Leffall, Lawyers tell e-commerce panel tax system needs overhaul. , The Washington Times, 05-31-1999, pp D13. Szabo, Joan, Net returns: just when you thought it was safe to do business in cyberspace....(Tax Talk)(Column). Vol. 26, Entrepreneur Magazine, 09-01-1998, pp 70(3). James T. Madore, Great Debate / Shoppers, governments in dispute over issue of online sales tax. , Newsday, 08-15-1999, pp F06.
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1/17/2020 0 Comments Egocentric Ways of ThinkingAn egocentric tendency is the inclination to think only of oneself without thinking of others. Basically, this means putting some or all aspects in your life at the moment over everything else. I believe that everyone has egocentric tendencies mainly in areas where we fail to think logically. Three ways that I am egocentric include egocentric hypocrisy, blindness and immediacy.Egocentric hypocrisy is the natural tendency to ignore flagrant inconsistencies between what we profess to believe and he actual beliefs our behavior imply, or inconsistencies between the standards to which we hold ourselves and those to which we expect others to adhere. This applies to me in various ways. For example, I want all of my friends to be as holy as a Christian. I'm not saying they need to be saved but I would like for them to practice religion.When people ask me what religion I am part of I always say I am a Christian because I was raised by a Christian woman and in a Christian home. Hypocritically, I don't practice what I preach. I don't agree with a lot of the things a Christian is opposed to live by, such as how we can't listen to certain kinds of music, how we can't have sex before marriage, smoke or drink, and do most things that teenagers would call fun. So in conclusion, I can't hold my friends to certain standards when I do not even live by them myself.Another egocentric tendency I possess is egocentric blindness, the natural tendency to not notice facts or evidence that contradict our favored beliefs or values. Meaning, I am ignorant to things that I don't already know or haven't seen with my own eyes. Since I am this way I always have my guard up and I feel like it is very hard to “trick†me. I don't believe anything I haven't seen with my own eyes. I have heard countless testimonies and miracles being done by the mercy of Christ but I have never actually experienced it.Therefore, I believe that faith is whatever it is believed to be. Yet people choose to argue religion while having no real evidence besides a man written bible. When people argue with me about religion I tend not to entertain it. When I do decide to, I try to get others to see that yes religion s acceptable and while I may not agree with religion I do understand why people believe. My mom once told me “If God isn't real and you believe then when all is said and done you have absolutely nothing to lose.But say God is real and you do not believe, then you have absolutely everything to lose. †Speaking for myself, it is a lot easier to believe in something you can see. Egocentric immediacy is the natural tendency to overgrazing immediate feelings and experiences-?so that when one event in our life is highly favorable or unfavorable, all of life seems favorable or unfavorable as well. Its like favoring a certain belief or feeling as long as things are going right but turning away from those beliefs or feelings when things aren't in your favor.Last year on January 14th, I had been extremely ill and was admitted to the hospital with an internal infection. During my stay at the hospital, I received a phone call from my mother in Tampa, stating that my great grandfather had passed away. I immediately felt the need to give up on everything. The feeling I felt at that moment was superior to all persons, places, and things that came my way. The day after he passed away I began praying that he was pain free from cancer and living a great after life somewhere else.As I was standing in my kitchen one of the wine bottles, that Just so happened to be from Italy, cork popped off. That immediately put me at ease. I felt like my prayers had been answered. An egocentric tendency is the inclination to think only of oneself without thinking of others. While we're all people in progress it is important to change the way we think. But naturally when thinking egocentrically, we fail to do so.
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