The Windy City has a long history of corruption. From gangsters of the 20’s to politicians today, not much seems to have stopped the cities appetite for income.
Recently, Chicago passed two laws that work together to tax all streaming entertainment as well as the purchase of intangible goods such as cloud storage space. While states like NY and California are getting headlines for pushing taxes that control detrimental social choices (taxing emissions and soda pop) Illinois is allowing Chicago to make a clear and undeniable money grab with their new tax.
I do see how someone could argue that this helps brick and mortar stores however even that is a flimsy argument. The movie rental stores are already gone. Nobody will bring them back. The closest thing to a Blockbuster that we will ever have again are the RedBox kiosks we see in grocery stores. They aren’t saving any businesses with this new tax, they just are looking for more places to make money. Everyone should be upset about this no matter where you live because it would be a shame for this to become a trend.