Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is a move afoot to eliminate all regulations unless they've been specifically passed by Congress. Which is basically incapable of passing anything. Ironically, that inherent dysfunction is the main reason to suspect that won't happen. But politically, every regulation as automatically partisan, even when it has overwhelming support.
> There is a move afoot to eliminate all regulations unless they've been specifically passed by Congress. Which is basically incapable of passing anything. (At least some of) the agencies brought this on themselves with their abuse of the goodwill/benefit of the doubt previously afforded to them. Most flagrant has been the ATF, for one example constantly redefining machine guns or pistol braces, turning millions of c…
FTC bans hidden junk fees in hotel, event ticket prices
351–360 of 691 posts
Re: FTC bans hidden junk fees in hotel, event ticket prices
#352Earlier quoted context omitted.
> estimate it based on geolocation and say "more exact will be available once you enter your address". I appreciate this can be done and countries in Europe do it, I just don't see how this is any better at all than status quo: * Current State: we all know the quoted price doesn't include sales tax, which will be added to make the final price in checkout after we enter our address. * Final State: we all know the quot…
The only reason why status quo is there because people are less likely to remove items from their online shopping carts once they've added it. There are techniques and shopping check out flows that have been perfected over the years to drive up the online sales. Realistically, it won't move the needle for the people who are on this forum because of the average salary (a few dollars are usually not a big deal for us),…
> I'm not sure why one wouldn't want to know the real price before the checkout. It's a bit baffling to me.
It's just that, in the list of things I'd like fixed about the world, that's about dead last.
When you're used to sales tax being added at the register, it's not an inconvenience. Who cares.
Re: FTC bans hidden junk fees in hotel, event ticket prices
#353Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you're talking about sales taxes, they can't until you input your shipping address. Because they depend on where you live. Nobody's trying to fool you by not including sales taxes. There's just no way to show them in advance, unless you want to start typing your address and zip code into every shopping website before you even browse.
Why do US states allow counties and cities to raise so many taxes? Usually (across the world and across history) the power of taxation is very jealously guarded, and local government is usually only allowed to gather a limited range of taxes. Historically sovereigns have treated attempts by subordinates to raise their own taxes as tantamount to treason.
...why shouldn't they?
You haven't given any reason why not.
And sales tax is one of a limited range of taxes.
Re: FTC bans hidden junk fees in hotel, event ticket prices
#354Earlier quoted context omitted.
What do you mean? Minimising monopolies is how you keep the free market competitive.
Free competition should mean that you don't get punished for winning. There is no sport that punishes a competitor who is constantly winning, as long as they are competing fairly. Imagine Schwarzenegger being banned from Mr Olympia or Gretzky being banned for life from minor league ice hockey. So that the other competitors are given a fair chance of winning. But every sport punishes competitors who are cheating or be…
> There is no sport that punishes a competitor who is constantly winning, as long as they are competing fairly.
Constantly winning in a competitive environment with no runaway feedback loops[0] is evidence of cheating.
See also, casinos: the "legitimate" ones don't rig the game - they know the odds; they expect you to win something here and then, but if they see you winning consistently, they'll rightfully assume you're cheating somehow, and ban you from the venue.
> But every sport punishes competitors who are cheating or being unsportsmanlike. As it should be in the marketplace.
Marketplace isn't like sportsball. It's like war. On the market like in war, anything goes. The only people who can afford living under delusion of market sportsmanship are people who are already so well-off and safe they can treat it as a game; for everyone else, it's a matter of life and death.
> But hackers and the EU and US bureaucrats think that being a leader in a market has to be punished for being a "monopoly".
The market isn't some divine ball game, or a magic ritual. It's a feedback system, with known failure modes. Wrt. monopolies, in particular, any good profit-seeking actor will aim at becoming a monopolist in their market segment, because that's how they can maximize profits while minimizing effort. At the same time, the market serves a critical function in organizing human society - but that stops working when monopolies pop up.
It's really very simple: all the goods and services and advancement we enjoy require market players to be actively putting in effort. To society, an entrepreneur is basically a donkey with a pole mounted to it, from which there hangs a carrot, just out of reach - the donkey just wants to grab the carrot, but the society only benefits when the donkey is chasing it. The donkey needs to believe they can win, so it keeps running, but it also can never be allowed to actually get their prize, because then it'll stop. That's why markets are regulated as to let people and companies grow and accumulate winnings, until a point, past which they'd stop participating (or worse, just go screwing around breaking things).
I.e. it's not about punishing someone for winning - it's about preventing them from complete victory, because then they become useless to society.
> While always turning a blind eye to rampant fraud and scams that are in the marketplace everywhere online and offline.
Who's turning a blind eye to it? Fraud and scams are the base state of the market; it's what it decays to if left to its own devices. Regulations are there to counteract this tendency.
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[0] - Feedback loops like compounding interest. In sports, unlike in the economy, you can't just reinvest your win to get more wins, and then reinvest them in turn, until you're winning so much so fast that no one can ever hope to catch up with you.
Re: FTC bans hidden junk fees in hotel, event ticket prices
#355Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Who is behind this move? What individuals, and what politicians? By what legal means is this happening? The supreme court. The removal of Chevron Deference this year means that the courts have given themselves huge amounts of power over any administrative decision that isn't specifically regulated by congress (rather than the prior stance which was to presume that agency decisions were reasonable interpretations of…
Federal agencies now have oversight from the judicial branch. That's a big check on their power.
> now
They always have?
Re: FTC bans hidden junk fees in hotel, event ticket prices
#356Earlier quoted context omitted.
>It might seem like Dish employees wake up every day and say, "What can we do today to screw our customers even more?" Made the mistake of buying a boost mobile sim this year. It was “expired” upon opening it. Retailer refused to refund it. Having not learned my lesson yet, I went elsewhere and ripped it open to check the expiration date this time before I bought it. Well “it’s prepaid for 90 days and comes with 35 g…
Be glad you weren’t on Ting.
What crap did Ting pull on you?
Their aggressive data throttling always rubbed me the wrong way, along with the Extreme data pricing, considering it was on Sprint's terrible network.
Re: FTC bans hidden junk fees in hotel, event ticket prices
#357Earlier quoted context omitted.
The only reason why status quo is there because people are less likely to remove items from their online shopping carts once they've added it. There are techniques and shopping check out flows that have been perfected over the years to drive up the online sales. Realistically, it won't move the needle for the people who are on this forum because of the average salary (a few dollars are usually not a big deal for us),…
> The only reason why status quo is there because people are less likely to remove items from their online shopping carts once they've added it. Sure, in a world where the actual sticker price is displayed. Do you believe this will remain true when customers have to add items to the cart to get the “real” price?
That's literally how it works everywhere else...? For example, when I go to amazon.jp, even without logging in, it will show you tax included prices once you enter your postal code.
Re: FTC bans hidden junk fees in hotel, event ticket prices
#358Earlier quoted context omitted.
> By your logic I shouldn’t have to pay income tax on sales because my customers already paid income tax. People often believe that because something has been for a while, it must always be so. Not too long ago we didn't have sales tax (introduced in the 1950's), and things were fine. You are taxed on your income, and you are taxed on your expenses. If you invest that money or do anything productive with it, it gets…
Only the income on the investment is taxed though. The capital isn’t double taxed. I’d love to abolish regressive sales taxes and return to 1950s level progressive income tax rates. You have my vote.
Progressive income tax is also silly. Just because you earn more money than someone else doesn't mean you derive more benefits from the government.
The idea of "Paying what you can afford" is BS everywhere it's been implemented - from school tuition to soccer camp to taxes. Everyone feels burned and like the "others" aren't paying what they should be.
Federal taxes should be a flat percentage, no deductions, no credits, no so-called "loop holes"... nothing. Every citizen pays the same percentage (whatever it needs to be).
The incumbent tax apparatus would never allow us to have something so simple, though.
For a nation that got it's start in no small part due to being over-taxed, it's very interesting to see just how much tax shenanigans we tolerate today.
Re: FTC bans hidden junk fees in hotel, event ticket prices
#359Earlier quoted context omitted.
The only reason why status quo is there because people are less likely to remove items from their online shopping carts once they've added it. There are techniques and shopping check out flows that have been perfected over the years to drive up the online sales. Realistically, it won't move the needle for the people who are on this forum because of the average salary (a few dollars are usually not a big deal for us),…
> I'm not sure why one wouldn't want to know the real price before the checkout. It's a bit baffling to me. It's just that, in the list of things I'd like fixed about the world, that's about dead last. When you're used to sales tax being added at the register, it's not an inconvenience. Who cares.
Fair, I guess it's a cultural thing then. I absolutely have no idea what other municipality's taxes are the second I get out of mine. I wouldn't want to randomly predict whether it's 10, 12, or 15%.
Re: FTC bans hidden junk fees in hotel, event ticket prices
#360Earlier quoted context omitted.
I remember shopping in Japan. The price on the tag, is exactly what you pay (same with services, like hotels). Since this is Japan, it's a high price, but no surprises. Also, the service is amazing , and they won't accept tips. If you leave money on the table, they will chase after you, to give it back.
Japan has the exact same sales tax rate(s) across the entire country, and it rarely changes. In the US, we have thousands of different rates and they change multiple times per year. Also, while it is the norm in Japan to include the tax, there are some exceptions. (Japan has 2 rates, 8% for certain items like food, and 10% for everything else).
Brick and mortar stores know exactly how much tax they have to pay, yet they don't show an all-inclusive price. It's clearly not a case of online retailers just not showing the tax because it's difficult. If they wanted to they could let you give your post code before checking out, and query the same database to show the post-tax price for everything.