This is very disappointing. What I am wondering is whether other online retailers will have to charge sales tax. It seems that this assault is leveled at Amazon only, and while I make many purchases there, I also shop at other sites that do not charge me sales tax. I do not see Amazon having an unfair advantage. I'm not happy with the prospect of feeding a government that is so uncivilized that it allows its citizens to do without health care, and horribly mismanages tax dollars. I suppose it is good that I will spend less money, because it is a fact that I will do just that. Hopefully California sales tax won't extend to food, but I suppose Amazon will still give consumers the advantage by offering lower prices. I already regularly buy certain groceries there. I was kind of excited about Amazon's upcoming version of the iPad, but I won't buy it at all if I have to pay sales tax.

I've used FastMail for a few years, and would never give it up. I have never seen a better deal, in fact, I looked at a provider referred to in the comments that charges $19.95 monthly. Crazy, and I doubt they could compete as far as features and quality of service. I use a number of e-mail services, but FM is one that I won't be dropping. I actually do not see any real competition because of the features and price. Cotse and Swissmail.org are very good, but they come with a higher price and still don't have many of the features of FastMail.

$14.95 DSL from AT&T is what got me to upgrade from dial-up a couple of years ago. That rose to $19.95 not too long ago, and I changed my phone service to measured local service to make up some of the cost addition. I'd love faster internet, but the highest service I can get from AT&T in my location is Express. I wanted Pro. What I have is worth $14.95, and I wouldn't want to pay more than I'm paying now, but when the cable company charges $57 monthly, the decision is not that hard - especially when I hear about how cable internet gets slow and other problems with it. The DSL has been consistent for me.

I don't automate any payments, as that would take much more faith than I have. I pay bills online whenever possible, using bank Bill Pay or bank debit cards. I have two banks especially for the risky internet, meaning PayPal and debit card transactions. I actually love PayPal because I feel that it protects me as a buyer. I don't keep much money in it, but of course it can access the two banks I have registered with them. And they have limited funds in them.