• 2 Posts
  • 755 Comments
Joined 5 个月前
Cake day: 2024年12月23日
  • hansolo@lemm.eetoNews@lemmy.world•The Arguement is over - Americans pay for tariffsEnglish
    3·
    2 天前

    Because the benefit is that we’ve habituated ourselves to a system where $9.99^plus tax^ is both good advertising, and it means that the vendor passes the tax on to the consumer. As if they can just their up their hands and say “Sorry man, I don’t like it either. Here’s how much you owe the government.” Gas prices all include a tax of 9/10 of 1 cent per gallon for the same reason.

    It also likely stems from early on implementation where no one was sure of the vendor actually paid all those taxes after all, so it’s a bit of “added transparency” even though it’s not really.

    Of course, it’s 2025, this would be an easy thing to undo, but Americans are creatures of habit as much as anyone else. Try and charge a Boomer $10 even and say tax is included, they will absolutely think you’re ripping them off.

  • hansolo@lemm.eetoEconomy@lemmy.world•Economists are as confused as Trump about taxing the richEnglish
    3·
    2 天前

    Because the question of what the top tax rate should be has to be defined by the question that should come first: “What services should this government offer?” So economists won’t agree unless you first define what the taxes should be doing.

    Someone who doesn’t understand how the government works sees the government as an enemy can’t answer the question because its immaterial to them. They don’t care to know or find out.

  • hansolo@lemm.eetoNews@lemmy.world•The Arguement is over - Americans pay for tariffsEnglish
    3·
    2 天前

    It’s because we don’t use a VAT, so taxes are not consistent rates by item or by locality. So for small shops with irregular supply chains, you price the thing however matches your bottom line, then let the register do the work on the final price.

    For large chains, it’s about consistency. The McDonals 99 cent menu might vary state by state and city by city from the $1.25 menu to still $0.99. An advert for a TV at Walmart would have to list dozens of different prices applicable across the, many within a nominal price of each other.

    There’s practical reasons, and Americans seem to think a VAT is essential communism (why, I have no clue), so its not likely to change any time soon.