beeble42

Let me know when I can "refuel" an EV in less time than it takes to read a novel. It's great technology but impractical for inter city trips or if you don't have charging stations at home. Even with an increase of hundreds of thousands of less slow than before but still really slow fast charging stations, its still impractical due to EV land defining "fast" differently to everyone else that has ever existed on this planet.

Wasn't Parler shutdown because it wasn't doing a good enough job moderating exactly this? But Facebook actually allows it? Really? I don't think it's acceptable anywhere. The Facebook app should be banned from the App Store for exactly the same reasons Parler's app was. Parler reportedly has changed their moderation system in an effort to comply with Apple even though Apple are refusing to let them back on. But Facebook are not even trying to limit this exact same type of content and are explicitly allowing it.

What's good for the goose is good for the gander. I don't think Apple has the spine to actually practice what it preaches though.

Online has been successful because I can see and choose from a wider variety of products than can be physically located in a store, no matter how large that store is. I can search for the type of product I want and see dozens of matches instantly. No wandering up and down aisles hoping they have one of the kind of thing I'm looking for and having to settle for that. Retail stagnated in the 19th Century and paid the price. The kinds of retail stores that are surviving are doing things that can't be done online.

Adding taxes will always hit the consumer. Not just taxes at point of sale. All taxes are costs of doing business and all prices consumers pay reflect that. In reality, no business ever pays any tax. It's always their customers who pay because every cent/penny/razoo of tax is included in the price of the goods and services the business sells whether it's itemised on a receipt or not.

This will just increase prices and won't do anything to save brick and mortar retail because most retail stores still don't have an answer to the convenience of online shopping. Most are in retail sectors that never will have an answer.

Same for taxing deliveries. It just increases prices that the consumers pay with zero impact on the businesses. None at all. Delivery costs have fallen over time due to volume, but online retail grew explosively when shipping costs were roughly double what they are now if you account for inflation.

Let's add taxes to online banking transactions to drive people back to branches. They are on high street too. Those teller jobs are just as important. People don't value their time and won't mind standing in line for 30+ minutes to talk to someone to do something they could do themselves on their phone in 20 seconds. Just as stupid an idea.

It's not about price. Never has been. Never will be.

One day governments will realise that when it comes to tinkering with market economies, they're playing 8 dimensional chess. Since they can only seem to think in 2 dimensions (and only know how to play checkers anyway) they are never going to achieve what they claim they want to achieve, just like all the other times they've tried. Every other dimension in the market place will shift around their change and a new equilibrium will form and because they only thought about one thing, it won't be what they anticipated. Then they'll have a new problem to deal with, but they'll be too stupid to realise that it's a problem of their own making, so they'll tinker with the system again. New unexpected equilibrium. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.