Great essay, but this statement is incorrect. VAT is paid by consumers, not by businesses. VAT is a regressive tax, where the lower your income, the higher percentage of your income goes to buy VAT goods.

Yang is always very careful with his words. He never says Amazon will pay the VAT. He always says, “The American people will get a slice of every Amazon sale.” Well no shit, Sherlock. If we pay the VAT, we get it back. Thanks for nothing. But guess what, Andrew? If we made sure that Amazon paid their fair share of existing taxes right the hell now we’d get a slice of every sale without having an additional, regressive tax on consumers. How ‘bout that instead? That’s Bernie’s plan. Which is why all the billionaires are lined up against Bernie but are in favor of Yang’s so-called “Freedom Dividend.”