"If states all worked together, they could plausibly prevent this race to the bottom by agreeing on a universal sales tax minimum"

The states, under Trump, are all working together to ensure a race to the bottom happens, both in the U.S. and abroad.

One hundred and thirty five nations worked together to create a minimum corporate tax rate called "Pillar Two". It would have factored in tax breaks for projects like this by calculating an effective tax rate for Meta, and mandated higher taxes if the effective rate was too low. Trump withdrew the U.S. from that effort and created a framework to retaliate if other countries upheld Pillar Two to raise taxes on American megacorps[1] in their jurisdictions.

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[1]https://www.piie.com/blogs/realtime-economics/2025/how-us-mu...

Well, now you see the issue. It only takes one hold-out for the plan to fail. The federal government could pass a law to at least ban it within the US, but the federal government can't seem to pass any laws right now.