Isn't this an argument for including taxes final prices, so people don't have to keep track of this? Maybe you're travelling. And it isn't like businesses don't already have to keep track of it for the bill. But instead of requiring businesses to print accurate menus or price labels, the burden is put on the customer to have this detailed knowledge, no matter where they go?
I guess the only two reasons I can think of for this not to happen is so that people have a less intuitive sense/transparency in what taxes the municipality/county/states impose, and so big multi-nationals can show the same "price" in different locations or ad campaigns. None of which ultimately helps the consumer.
To bring it back to the original issue, I guess people don't usually notice because taxes aren't orders of magnitude different, unlike some medical expenses. If you had a beer on holiday, and then found out it was taxed at 200% or even 2000% instead of 20%, you'd be rightfully mad.
Psychologically, if they quote to you the price without taxes, it looks cheaper even if you know about the extra 20% in sales tax and service fees and city tax and and...
Someone showed me the bill from some street corner food vendor in SF. It had like 4 taxes on it over the advertised price.
Isn't this an argument for including taxes final prices, so people don't have to keep track of this? Maybe you're travelling. And it isn't like businesses don't already have to keep track of it for the bill. But instead of requiring businesses to print accurate menus or price labels, the burden is put on the customer to have this detailed knowledge, no matter where they go?
I guess the only two reasons I can think of for this not to happen is so that people have a less intuitive sense/transparency in what taxes the municipality/county/states impose, and so big multi-nationals can show the same "price" in different locations or ad campaigns. None of which ultimately helps the consumer.
To bring it back to the original issue, I guess people don't usually notice because taxes aren't orders of magnitude different, unlike some medical expenses. If you had a beer on holiday, and then found out it was taxed at 200% or even 2000% instead of 20%, you'd be rightfully mad.