World of Opinion
On taxing Internet purchases: It may now be time to look more closely at the national moratorium on taxing Internet sales.
While retailers are lamenting the recent dismal holiday season, a final tally for e-tailers, according to BusinessWeek, showed online sales jumped more than 20 percent to $9.8 billion. Online sales still make up less than 5 percent of total holiday sales, but the rapid growth has not escaped the attention of strapped governments.
Houston Mayor Lee Brown spoke of the issue last week in discussing the city’s multimillion-dollar shortfall expected over the next two years or more. Many of the city’s problems, said the mayor, are tied directly to the slump in sales tax revenues.
Texas, which relies heavily on sales tax, has similar fiscal problems. The growing market share of the Internet grows more tempting to the tax man, who is growing increasingly desperate.
On HIV and pharmaceutical companies:
Magic Johnson can still bring it. Retired for several years, the basketball legend has now become, literally, the poster boy for living a healthy life even though HIV-positive. In what GlaxoSmithKline frankly admits is a marketing strategy aimed at securing a larger share of a market it already dominates, the pharmaceutical giant is using Johnson to spread the word among urban blacks on HIV and AIDS. …
Because, to be blunt, that’s where the business is. … Traditionally, this community has not been trusting of the health care system, which is where Johnson comes in. A figure of tremendous trust and respect, he can reach many blacks in the 24-44 age group for whom AIDS is the leading cause of death. He can educate them on how to avoid HIV infection as well as how to live a healthy life even though infected: “A positive attitude, partnership with my doctor and taking my medicine every day,” as his ad says. …
The drug “cocktail” that keeps Johnson and thousands of other HIV patients healthy is expensive. Treatment can cost many thousands of dollars a year. Medicaid and private insurance plans cover treatment, but are always sensitive to cost issues and prefer generic drugs. Drug companies have resisted appeals for lower prices and oppose the use of generics. …
Frankly, since we’re talking about the worst killer the planet has known in recent decades, we’d be more impressed if GlaxoSmithKline and other drug companies, who are also living a healthy life through pharmaceuticals, also lowered the prices on their magic drugs and made them more accessible to people everywhere. Call it a corporate gesture of good will to fellow human beings.
On war with Iraq:
Tony Blair says he ‘totally understands’ why public opinion is skeptical on Iraq – but it is far from clear that he does … opposition to war in Iraq is rising, not falling. … This battle for public opinion at home and abroad differs from other eras in several respects. Generally speaking, people are better informed, more connected, more autonomous, much more critical of the political process, and less inclined to accept at face value their leaders’ judgments. As a result, modern public opinion, one aspect of a globalized community, is less easily led or manipulated. The public increasingly demands its voice be heard, and contrary views genuinely considered, before decisions are made in its name. War is not inevitable; but neither, if war comes, is public support for it.
On Saddam Hussein:
The idea is tempting: Saddam Hussein is granted immunity, he steps down as president and disappears into exile with his family to a designated land…. In reality it is highly likely this will never happen. … Saddam Hussein would never accept such an offer. In addition, exile and immunity for Iraq’s president would send the wrong signal to the world and all remaining dictators. Not to bring a war criminal and butcher like Saddam Hussein – whom human rights groups allege has claimed the lives of a million people – to justice would be an enormous setback for the international community. Since the lawsuits against Chile’s Augusto Pinochet and above all Yugoslavia’s Slobodan Milosevic, the world has changed for violent rulers – they must now reckon with being held accountable for their actions before an international judicial body.
In this light, it is doubtful if granting Saddam immunity and exile would really save so many lives. While war would be avoided, the long-term consequences would possibly be worse than those in the short-term.