Almost every other country in the world has solved this problem. It’s always fascinating when Americans have problems other countries don’t have, and just throw their hands in air saying “welp nothing we can do about it”
How many other countries are formed by a union of states governed by something similar to the 10th amendment? Always fascinating when non Americans can't understand that different places have different rules.
I'm sorry but that's not particularly novel in the history of the formation of states.
being poor means the bank manager won't speak with you, and also the bank doesn't much care to have you as a customer
The bank manager didn't know what my financial state was. After all, why would I be overdrafting if I was rich?
Last time I had issues with my bank, they had special help set aside for us premium customers. The regular teller wasn't even authorized to fix that, so I don't want to know how long I would've spent there without the special status.
> I don't think so, there are more apparent reasons listed in this thread already. I am just pointing that rolling a sales tax into price is not as simple as some imagine. I imagine VAT is accounted differently so it could be rolled into the price without this kind of error but I've never dealt with VAT so I can only speculate. Nope. VAT has complicated rounding rules too. Turns out it actually is still easy to roll…
>It's a lemon market. You mean it's a market with information asymmetry? How so? Customers know both that the sales taxes exist and their magnitude. If you think it's a great idea you can put big sign saying on your shop/in your ad "inc. tax" instead of "plus tax", which is on most advertisements already. Surely customers could read it.
> Customers know both that the sales taxes exist and their magnitude.
Customers have a sense that they exist and a vague idea of their magnitude, perhaps. They don't calculate them, at best they compare the advertised number - remember most customers are average intelligence or below.
Traveling to the US is for most Europeans a mightmare on this point. We are used to have a price that includes the taxes, services, delivery, wathever, you pay this much for this good ot service, and not an anachronistic 'tip' incantation for which you have to be tuned in to the latest local vibes so as not to unintentionaly run afoul of some obfuscated social rules, or you have to wip out your phone to google tax ra…
> have to be tuned in to the latest local vibes so as not to unintentionaly run afoul of some obfuscated social rules You do realise you are travelling to a foreign country, right? This rings to me like Americans who travel to Spain and complain about the siesta, or Argentina and how late they dine. Lots of local government means taxes change over smaller distances in America than most of the world. Also, most retail…
I've never met an American who prefered the system of not showing the full price on the shelf. The system exists entirely to obfuscate prices and confuse less price-conscious consumers. It is hardly culture.
The bank manager didn't know what my financial state was. After all, why would I be overdrafting if I was rich?
Last time I had issues with my bank, they had special help set aside for us premium customers. The regular teller wasn't even authorized to fix that, so I don't want to know how long I would've spent there without the special status.
I just asked the teller to see the manager. I'm sorry, I just don't see why this is a difficult thing to do.
What's the tax on the individual items in question, also, because it's all variable based on what you're buying, what city you're in etc. Pretty much everywhere else I've travelled in the world, the price on the shelf is the price you pay, even when tax changes based on what something is classified as (to whit that fun legal case of "is a jaffa cake a cake or a biscuit"). For some absolutely bizarre self-hating reaso…
> What's the tax on the individual items in question, also, because it's all variable based on what you're buying, what city you're in etc. You're overlooking the context. Someone said it was easy to let young children go shopping in places where taxes are included in the sticker price because you can give the kid $5 and the kid knows they can buy any item with a sticker price that does not exceed that or a combinati…
This is on an article about a bill banning hidden fees
But when you see something that says 4.99$ when you ring up that item at the counter, you will not have enough to pay for your 5$ because of a fee which is not posted on the pricetag
> Lots of local government means taxes change over smaller distances in America than most of the world. > cultural distrust of taxation and government > a decreasing tendency to use cash > higher income per capita Really don't see how any of the points above are an obstacle to putting the ~actual~ price of a product on paper. > Also, most retailers here use paper labels Great! Makes it even easier to printout the act…
> Really don't see how any of the points above are an obstacle to putting the ~actual~ price of a product on paper The pieces of paper are in multiple places. The bill is calculated in one place. Doing things in multiple places is more costly and error prone than doing it in one. (Also, the paper being physical means a physical person must update it. The POS can be remotely managed.) Here is New York State's guide on…
> If consumers valued it, tax-inclusive pricing might be worth the effort. But in America, we don't.
That's not true. I would guess the vast majority of consumers would at least slightly prefer that the tax be included in the display price. The problem is those consumers aren't an organized interest group, whereas retailers are. It's not a "cultural preference"--it's just the inability of the political system to address large but diffuse problems.
Wow and not even vetoed by a governor who vetoes things coming from his own party because it's a POTUS election year.
I can already see the gotcha capitalism lobby of life insurance, cell phone carriers, spas, cruise ships, yearbook photographers, and payday lenders fighting this in court.
I just moved into an apartment advertised at $1,420/mo that is costing over $1,700/mo because of extra fees only mentioned in fine print inside a 100+ page lease. The "no hidden fees" ISP that I'm now forced to use has over $30/mo in hidden fees. It's not just prevalent, it's business as usual for every company everywhere -- because they can and they know nobody will do anything about it.
Oh weird, how common is this? I rented from 2002 until 2020, and never experienced anything like this. The advertised rent was always the same as the check I'd mail the landlord every month. Sure, I had to pay for electricity, internet, etc. on my own, but that's expected and spelled out in the lease agreement. One thing I did learn was to check on things like ISPs beforehand. You know the address of the place, so yo…
There is a fudge factor there that the landlord can play with. Common utilities like sewage, sometimes water, and some other stuff can be tacked on to the monthly bill. Some buildings will also make a deal with comcast and take a cut out of internet/cable. It varies based on the jurisdiction and what they can get away with. A typical case would be 10% or so in junk fees.
>It's a lemon market. You mean it's a market with information asymmetry? How so? Customers know both that the sales taxes exist and their magnitude. If you think it's a great idea you can put big sign saying on your shop/in your ad "inc. tax" instead of "plus tax", which is on most advertisements already. Surely customers could read it.
> Customers know both that the sales taxes exist and their magnitude. Customers have a sense that they exist and a vague idea of their magnitude, perhaps. They don't calculate them, at best they compare the advertised number - remember most customers are average intelligence or below.
Everyone has a phone that can manage calculations nowadays, few people can or want to calculate precise taxes. I still don't see how it makes advertising prices with taxes a "lemon market", which somehow prevents businesses from advertising such prices, if I understood your assertion correctly. Some businesses do advertise prices with tax, most don't. If people really wanted prices to include tax they'd naturally took their custom to the businesses that advertise "inc. tax" and took it away from "plus tax" ones, resulting in the situation opposite to what we have now.