It's not just 50 states, its 50 states and each taxing jurisdiction in those states. City, county, local, and special taxing jurisdictions make sales and use tax incredibly complicated.

Then you are probably already not following the law. Most states require that you report any goods you buy where sales tax is due, but where the retailer did not collect sales taxes.

I'm going to assume you aren't reporting those purchases at the end of the year (I believe the statistics show most people don't) but that does not mean that it's not a requirement. This legislation is about making it possible for states to collect taxes that are already due in a manner that traditional brick-and-mortar already have to deal with.

It is much more challenging when all your data is in the cloud. You're communications might be secure, but if the low-level tech hired by the subcontracted firm that supports the datacenter for the company that the government has hired for "the cloud" decides to download all your information, then it doesn't matter how secure your communications are.

And who notices when all the corporate data you have, which can be accessed by anyone in the world with just a username and password, starts getting downloaded in central China, or Estonia?

Or who cares? That cloud provider lets you setup usernames and passwords, and tell you it's secure. Your employees go home, where they've recently downloaded "AVG Super Microsoft Spyware Buster Plus" for a small fee, and now your corporate data is available on bittorrent.

If you call that cloud provider and complain, they say "our users can work anywhere in the world, it's "the cloud

Actually, I think this will be going away in the next 10-15 years. Sure, stupid users will still exist out there, but I see 3 year olds texting now. The idea that you "learn" computers is going away.

Kids are learning how to use computers, iPads, and random electronic interfaces before they can read. Just in the people we've hired in the past 5 years I see a huge difference. The "experienced" computer user from 5 years ago has a harder time learning new software than the "inexperienced" (right out of HS and no training) computer users today.

They might need help and have stupid questions, but I think the days of "I don't know how to do this because it looks different" are going away.

I cringe when I hear of small shops that host their own email. I've seen vets and dentists that run their own outdated, unpatched, backup-deficient exchange servers. Even for companies that have 50-100 people, outsourcing email can be a very good practice. It's cheap, relatively secure, and has a professional team behind it. Once you get above 100 people or so, have a real IT crew and budget, you have to really think about the cloud.

When it goes down, there's basically nobody to call, and if MS or Google decides that you are going to change platforms or security settings, there's really nothing you can do about it.

I actually do complain about other companies receiving subsidies, but given the fact that this story was about solar and natural gas, that is what we are discussing here. However, they do benefit from a number of subsidies not available to other industries, but that's a very complicated issue to discuss in a comment (which is why I've given a range).

Corporate welfare is a bigger problem in this country than many other types of handouts, and giving them to the most profitable companies, that are granted exclusive rights to drill by the government, can easily be argued that it against the public interest.

Fossil fuel subsidies aren't just a problem in the US, but around the world subsidies are an issue. The IEA claims they are the biggest enemy to green energy.

Just because many companies have their hand out doesn't mean it's alright for fossil fuel companies to do it. We should stop where it makes sense (ie grossly profitable industries that don't compete in a free market) and support them where they do make sense (ie young technology that could eventually get us out of middle eastern interests and leave the planet easier for our children to live in).

I find people that don't complain about fossil fuel subsidies don't have an axe to grind; they tend to not care enough to be informed.

We do all choose to consume those fossil fuels, but that is exactly why it doesn't make sense to subsidize them.

We are going to buy them anyway, and they are going to make billions in profits. Why should we all pay taxes to pay oil companies so they can sell us gas cheaper? It doesn't make sense at all.

It does make sense to subsidize investment in cleaner, newer tech. It is harder to sell, but better in the long run for us. You subsidize it until you can make something better and cheaper. You don't subsidize something everyone is going to buy anyway.

Why would I give you 50 cents to sell me something 40 cents cheaper?

That's pretty much what Congress is made up of now.

I don't know why everyone is being so hard on them. They've been pretty bored lately, with all the healthcare, debt ceiling, spending, and military issues all being recently solved.

No, I think the the Fox commentator meant that Germans are brighter than the Americans when it comes to solar energy policy.

I don't think she does understand the economics of the situation. Solar energy is an area that deserves research money (it does make economic sense). Getting rid of politicians that fund pork projects makes economic sense. It's unfortunate when those two collide, but it's bound to happen.

There is no "detriment" to natural gas because of the solar industry. Natural gas is crazy profitable, as are most fossil fuels. They don't need or deserve subsidies, but rake in billions each year. We pay those subsidies, they profit, our politicians get money from them. That doesn't make economic sense.

I'd believe it if they rallied against the 10-54 billion (depending on how you count) subsidies we give to fossil fuel companies, who rake in trillions in profits. Half-billion to a failed solar company is bad, but not as bad as 10+ billion to already established, ridiculously-profitable industries.

I think too many people miss this point. Corporations are not people and can be regulated, and there's a lot of credibility in the idea that both corporations and people have different, but substantial, rights to privacy.

Governments might have a need to keep secrets in order to function well, but they don't have the right to keep secrets. (I mean, they have given themselves the right, but that doesn't make it "right".)

Governments must be accountable to the people they serve, and to the greater world. When government information is leaked to someone who is not represented by that government, how would you want it handled? Would you want them to keep and hold it, sell it to the greatest bidder, or release it to the whole world? Don't you want to know the secrets your government is keeping when they have been leaked? Did not everyone in the US have a pretty decent opinion of Wikileaks when they were mostly exposing secrets of other governments and worldwide organizations before they were given a large number of US documents?

If the tables were turned, and a Russian military officer downloaded volumes of information on current Russian operations, leaked it to a third party, and it contained information the US would want to know, wouldn't everyone in the US praise them for releasing information vital to the US that the Russians were keeping secret?

You don't have to like what wikileaks is doing, but they are generally accountable to their employees and supporters. When they aren't breaking the law of the country they operate in, what more do you want? Either believe them, or call BS and move on.

He might sound like it, but I have no reason to either, and I've generally had pretty darn good experiences, both with consumer and with enterprise support. I've only dealt with enterprise support once, but it was super easy.

Sure, you might have to go through the effort and it might take you an hour with support, but you can't expect them to send out someone to replace a motherboard without asking questions. I've found, if you answer the questions correctly, act very cooperative, and try just a couple things they suggest without complaining, you can usually get what you want in 20 minutes or less.

You must realize, that for everyone that calls and actually knows what they are talking about, there are 10 that call and say their "hard drive box" is bad, get upset, and ended up not having the thing plugged in - or worse, someone of that level of intelligence that demands ram chips or something be fixed because their very knowledgeable nephew said so.

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