Thursday 11 July 2013

I hadn’t realised the Retailers Association was run by a moron

There are arseholes everywhere. One of them runs the Retailers Association.

John Albertson, Retailers Association CEO, wants to add a tariff to every single purchase you make on the internet—to make your books more expensive, your clothes more costly, your boots and shoes and software and music more pricy.

That’s why I call him an arsehole.

Internet retailing has been a boon for every New Zealand buyer. Instead of being restricted to just the few shops in our local area, we now have the whole of the world’s goods available at the click of a mouse, at the lower prices a worldwide market makes possible.

And since everyone at root is a consumer, in a rational world that should have all of us throwing up our hands with joy.

But not John.  John wants to put a stop to that forthwith. You see, purchases made from overseas buyers only attracts GST on amounts over $400. John reckons however you should pay Government Slavery Tax on every purchase made online.  Because by not taxing the buggery out of every New Zealand consumer, says this deluded fool, “we” are “subsidising overseas retailers to the tune of $200 million.”

“Subsidy” in this case meaning “paying them less.”  What a moron.

John argues “we” should impose GST on every online purchase “so the government can clip the ticket on every sale.” He wants to punish you while, incidentally, helping his association’s members. (Or that’s what he thinks.)

How would this extra imposition be levied when it’s not just iniquitous but almost impossible to apply? PayPal would probably need to face up to its new role as an international tax collector, says The Arsehole. "PayPal are going to come up against this all around the world, so they may as well get used to the idea."

You can almost hear his heels clicking together.  Or the GCSB tapping your broadband connection.

Local retailers need to realise the world has changed—and maybe they should get in on it too. After all, if it’s now just as easy for a buyer in Ashburton to buy goods from Kiev, Khartoum or Kaliningrad, then it’s just as easy for an Ashburton retailers to send goods to those places as well.  The internet revolution makes the whole world a NZ retailer’s online oyster, yet too many are too busy complaining their shot glasses are are half empty.

Maybe it’s because they’re taking advice from arseholes like John.

3 comments:

Heisenbug said...

So he's asking for import tariffs by another name. What a twit.

Karl Denninger took a good swipe at whining retailers today, too, at Market Ticker.

Gavin said...

So the retail landscape has changed and I'm told to change or be left behind, using that logic if I close my shop didn't employ staff operated out of a garage so no rates to council no rent to landlord and all online sales under $400 I make should be gst free to make it a level playing field with overseas retailers yep sounds good to me. No gst no rates no wages no paye less rent less money to Govt so less money to health, education, pensions, benefits, roading etc etc etc yay!!!

Brass said...

Gavin thou you suffer from a computer error called ID10T - work it out nut bar. When I buy things from overseas I buy things that I can't get in New Zealand or Where New Zealand retailers charge stupid markup's for what I know are insanely cheap products - why should I pay 15$ + government theft for a product that costs .66 NZD to land in New Zealand including G.S.T and freight, if NZ Retailers want the people to spend our money in our economy - you should charge reasonable mark ups and stock what people want so they don't have to source overseas.
Get Real numbnuts.
FalloutBoy.