They absolutely distort the market! That's the point if you're a government trying to affect your economy. The idea is that everyone collectively paying $X for cheap shipping to be available creates more than $X in economic value.
Someone who doesn't actually take advantage of the cheap shipping directly is 100% benefiting from the businesses they frequent that do.
An argument that might be more familiar in our industry: Why do we spend 10M on advertising when we could use that money to make our product cheaper? Because that 10M spent brings in 12M in revenue.
Someone who doesn't actually take advantage of the cheap shipping directly is 100% benefiting from the businesses they frequent that do.
An argument that might be more familiar in our industry: Why do we spend 10M on advertising when we could use that money to make our product cheaper? Because that 10M spent brings in 12M in revenue.