I can assure you there is no one pouncing. It's easy to miss read intent and tone.
Welcome to the kinder gentler forum.
Relax, this place is long on help and short on confrontational posts!
I am quite relaxed. I am actually quite gentle as well. Perhaps it is way too many years studying English throughout college for me.
I did not miss read intent or the tone. The writer wrote what the writer wrote. If the writer was not able to portray the tone or intent, that is not the readers fault. As an example, the writer did not have to use the word 'you' when he wrote it. If he was talking generically, there was no need to write using that. Heck, there was no need whatsover to perform forum necromancy and pull something out that is nearly 60 days old. So for me to interpret it as a 'pounce', I feel, was appropriate. And again, if that was not his intent and it probably was not, well, he should have worded it differently.
The respondant, as I stated, seemed to have a rant in his quiver that he wanted to just throw out as soon as it looked like it fit his narrative. Please, point out where I ever mentioned I was trying to avoid paying sales tax. I never stated that . . . anywhere. His crusade to save local jobs, support infrastructure, et al is quite noble and I completely agree with it. To paint me as a user of services that I do not pay for . . . that is a direct 'pounce' onto me. Regardles of whether or not it is true.
So instead of hurling insults back to the person, all I did was point out that they were not understanding how sales tax works. I don't think the person is stupid by any means. I just think they may be ignorant to how sales tax works. That is why I took the time to write out that Amazon never pays sales tax. No retailer ever pays sales tax. The retailers work as agents of the state as collectors of sales tax. They collect on the states behalf and then transmit what they collected to the state. I also pointed out how complex the sales tax collection is.
In regards to my purchases, the Rads were $1500 to my door. The E-Glide was $1800+tax+gas/time to go down to Santa Monica. So the delta was nearly $500. That gave me pause to think if the E-Glide was worth roughly $500 more. Now when I found out that Rad was collecting tax, the delta decreased. Now the difference was roughly 130 less. That made the value of the E-Glide greater to me. Pretty simple concept.
I hold no ill regard to the respondant.