What's the big deal about on-line shopping?

While sales taxes might be avoided, the shipping and handling costs make the transaction a financial wash--or even more expensive than buying from local merchants.

Why, then, are millions of Americans now surfing the World Wide Web to buy everything imaginable? And why are businesses and services of all sizes rushing to create websites?

Simple convenience. The cyber buyer can shop 24 hours a day, seven days a week from the privacy of home or office.

No sending for catalogs, no consulting the Yellow Pages or print ads, no local or long-distance telephone calls, no traveling from store to store.

While consumers in large cities usually can find what they want locally, residents in smaller cities and rural areas used to have to travel many miles to malls, supermarkets and specialty shops. No longer.

This boon to commerce has a definite downside, however. Increased cyber transactions mean drastic revenue reductions for state and local jurisdictions dependent on sales taxes to fund vital public services.

Congress needs to rethink its hands-off stand regarding federal imposition of on-line sales taxes redirected to local and state taxing districts. (14 MAY 2000).