I know, it sounds like an oxymoron but read on.
I don't live in the USA but have shopped in Texas on many occasions. I used to think that it was annoying, that the price I saw quoted wasn't actually the price I paid. The price was before the 8.5% Sales Tax.
I have come though, to think of this as a great idea. This is purely and simply, honesty. You know how much the vendor wants and then how much the government is taking.
Don't you think that people would sit-up and be more aware of the effect of taxes if these were separately declared?
Doesn't it make for a more honest approach to pricing?
Imagine driving into a petrol station and seeing the price as £0.38p per litre or going into a store and seeing something priced 16% less than at present? Okay, so when you get to the cash register, you are back in the real world and will be paying £1.50 for a litre of fuel but I can't help thinking that when people see just how much tax they are paying then perhaps people will push for less taxes, even if this means less spending. Right now, because the taxes on goods or services are hidden, they kind of slide by people. Would people be so blindly supportive of so called green taxes, if they knew just how much they were really costing them?
You could even take this a stage further and have some kind of display board outside each national or locally taxpayer-funded facility, showing how much tax is being used to support the place. Either year to date or forecast for the year. Taxes and spending need to become personal and meaningful. £200 Billion here or £50 Billion there, doesn't get through to people. Telling them that 75% of the price of fuel is actually taxes levied by the government catches their attention, so does letting them know that the local Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual and Transgender centre is funded with £50,000 of tax payer money or the local village hall with £1,500!
An idea for implementation that should be favoured by all right-thinking people that want to see a smaller government.
I don't live in the USA but have shopped in Texas on many occasions. I used to think that it was annoying, that the price I saw quoted wasn't actually the price I paid. The price was before the 8.5% Sales Tax.
I have come though, to think of this as a great idea. This is purely and simply, honesty. You know how much the vendor wants and then how much the government is taking.
Don't you think that people would sit-up and be more aware of the effect of taxes if these were separately declared?
Doesn't it make for a more honest approach to pricing?
Imagine driving into a petrol station and seeing the price as £0.38p per litre or going into a store and seeing something priced 16% less than at present? Okay, so when you get to the cash register, you are back in the real world and will be paying £1.50 for a litre of fuel but I can't help thinking that when people see just how much tax they are paying then perhaps people will push for less taxes, even if this means less spending. Right now, because the taxes on goods or services are hidden, they kind of slide by people. Would people be so blindly supportive of so called green taxes, if they knew just how much they were really costing them?
You could even take this a stage further and have some kind of display board outside each national or locally taxpayer-funded facility, showing how much tax is being used to support the place. Either year to date or forecast for the year. Taxes and spending need to become personal and meaningful. £200 Billion here or £50 Billion there, doesn't get through to people. Telling them that 75% of the price of fuel is actually taxes levied by the government catches their attention, so does letting them know that the local Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual and Transgender centre is funded with £50,000 of tax payer money or the local village hall with £1,500!
An idea for implementation that should be favoured by all right-thinking people that want to see a smaller government.
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