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Ideas regarding sales tax
I just spent 2 weeks in Europe and I have returned to the land of hidden sales tax. You know, how when you order a meal or buy clothes, you have to imagine the price with an additional 6-9% added on? Then you have to double or triple that if you are in a situation to tip. It all seems like a total pain in the ass now that I've experienced how the Europeans do it. They have it simple... the tax is already included in the price. I understand the Australians have it this way as well. It was SO much simpler and it felt rather... empowering.
I've been watching a few of those TED talks where some professor is telling the audience about the various ways in which our mind assigns value to real things as opposed to imagined things and I think it all comes together when you experience yourself buying something with hidden tax as opposed to included tax. Hidden tax obviously makes something look much cheaper, thus more tempting to buy or at least harder to estimate the actual value of. Nobody actually pulls out a calculator to figure out the actual amount. When the tax is included, your decision is completely informed and real. I liked it.
I also liked not feeling compelled to tip because waiters actually make wages. What a scam that is in the states! Restaurants cheaping it up by not even paying their waitresses and relying on their customers to do it. Wow, we are so backwards and inefficient here.
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