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Comment by a_cardboard_box | Hacker News Reader

Telling someone they're gonna pay $10 + taxes and then giving them a bill for $11 + taxes is obviously fraud and I'm not sure how we got to a point where we seem to accept it. I don't know if we need stricter rules or better enforcement, but whatever we're doing now isn't working.

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We need to get rid of taxes being separately listed as well. Taxes should be treated as a business expense. I pay you for food, then you pay for electricity, water, heat, supplies, taxes, insurance, etc. and keep the profits. That's how it works.

Just state one number on the menu for each item and charge exactly that number. I'm more likely to buy something that says "$12" than "$10+taxes" because it's deterministic and not some vague probability distribution in my head of how much "taxes" is.

That’s how it works in Germany. Consumers see final prices and an itemized invoice shows how much tax is included in the price. Advertising prices to consumers that do not include taxes is against consumer protection laws over here.

Exactly. As a customer, what matters is my out-of-pocket expenses. I don't care what portion goes to the store, the distributor, the wholesaler, or the government. I care about how much I pay.

I am fortunate to live in a country where the price that's advertised is the price I pay, but every time I visit the United States I am amazed that people are OK with buying something without it being clear in advance how much it costs. And let's not even start about your demented health care pricing.

It really seems like all business regulators have been fired and it's just pure anarchy right now.

It's a vicious cycle: as monopoly businesses make money they use that money to destroy regulation that stops them from making more money. Continue as nauseam and this is where you end up.

This is kinda what Biden was talking about with his "war on junk fees".

Apparently Ticketmaster is gonna be dropping them now. Of course, I'm too cynical to actually BELIEVE that but at least it's in the public discourse now all the way up to the PRESIDENT.

Will anything actually change? Well, I hate to be cynical but I am...

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