on the wisdom of Luddites

So, another Christmas has come and gone. I did this one without any family around, having just come off of a vacation in Utah with my brother and father. But it was fun, with friends and my girlfriend’s family to keep me occupied. I spent about 50% of my purchase dollars online this year, and only at the 11th hour realized that in doing so, I’d negatively impacted the economy of the area. We should I suppose, spend our dollars locally so as to boost the neighbor merchants and the local employment rate. But I wonder to what degree this is just naïve denial of unstoppable economic evolution? Clearly online merchandising is the future for commodities that don’t require a face-to-face examination, so not unlike the auto bailout, is buying your Wii gift from a local electronics store really going to save them over the next few years, or just slow their death? And to critics, I would ask whether the real time to fight this fight was not 10-15 years ago, as national chains like Best Buy, Circuit City, etc., sterilized the land of homegrown competitors?

In today’s economy, perhaps a job at Circuit City is still worth saving? After all, Joe’s and Bob's electronics had only one owner each, and the several employees they hired became only a little, if any, worse off working for Circuit City than they were for the local concerns. So the impact of national chains a decade or two ago affected mostly a handful of local owners. The internet promises much more severe disruptions. The clerks and salespeople of Circuit City aren’t needed in Harrisburg if everyone buys their electronics online, as I did.

If we want to stop the impact of internet shopping on the local economies, and the corresponding demise of local retail jobs, we need to favor online sales taxation and online sales transport tax increases to make that source a more expensive option. A Draconian solution to be sure, but the alternative of few retail jobs in most population areas might favor such a severe, economic engineering approach.

The affect of a (e.g.) $10.00 delivery tax against online purchases, excepting digital media such as music and movies, would transform the internet into a mostly convenience option. It would hamper innovation and growth in this space, to be certain. It would increase the carbon footprint of purchases as many of us would jump in our cars and shop semi-local stores instead of spending a few minutes online. But it would also serve to slow the deterioration of neighborhood retail jobs, and I’m not sure that doesn’t balance out the equation.