[untostaronaf]

I think it's sad that the brick and mortar shops are petitioning to impose the online retailers with taxes rather than fight to lower their own taxes. It's like a shackled slave seeing a free man, and instead of yearning for his own shackles to come off so he can be free, he yearns for the free man to be shackled so it's "fair".

Yes, that's a fair point. But they probably understand the futility of trying to get the government to lower taxes, so as a minimum they have to fight for a fair playing field.

And you're correct. Even if the government were to be revenue neutral, the impact of taxing online sales should be to lower the existing rate. If the politicians weren't so revenue-greedy, they could propose this and it would appear as a win-win situation, as they would be able to claim a lowering of the existing rate.