WOW!
10.15% sales tax!
Canada can be much worse though.
Up to 15%, depending on province (including labor)
different cities have different total tax rates. 10.15% here, town 10 min away 9.13%. But get this. That town, is a wet town, or more specifically "damp". Where I live, is dry. Anyway, the sales & use tax 9.13%. Then if you buy a drink and a burger at a sit-down restaurant they hit you with close to 30 (or I think 28.25%...been a while since I looked into it). Then 2% for a "prepared food tax". So over 30% depending on what you buy. That in itself is absolutely asinine, IMO. The city says the alcohol tax revenue is pretty substantial; town has 3 colleges and 2 of them are known for the kids going to the bars and clubs. The other one is a very conservative college and few if anyone attending or working there, drink. Anyway, since the tax on it is higher'n a cats back, and there are millions of dollars coming into the city with that income, the city keeps saying "we brought in X amount of money on alcohol sales tax alone". And they did/do. I'm not disputing that. However, where I have issues is this. They don't tell us the whole story. The rest of that story is that they had to open up a whole other department in the city government that controls the permits, enforcment, and how to spend that income. The department in itself, eats up a big portion of the tax income. There is little left over by comparison, that is actually spent on what they say it's supposed to go toward. Many times "the income" is brought up when they put something to a vote, such as marijuana for example. They wanted it legalized for "medical purposes" and they got it done. Income is substantial in the form of taxes alone. That income is almost solely used to police the "industry", with little if anything left after the bills are paid. But people are short-sighted, they say "well it'll bring in millions or billions"...sure...but what is the COST? That part is often overlooked and depending on who you challenge with that question, often combative conversation results. IMO, that type of response to a legitimate question is nothing short of a lack of thought, they have no idea how to respond so they just start getting mad about it, often attacking you. I go through it too often.
Thus, since most of the taxable income "brought in" does not go to what they say it does, they are duping the taxpayers, which IMO is pretty much normal. Yet we let them get away with it.
So they want waiters' cash counted and thus taxed. Pretty typical of this government. These leaders we currently have are real good about spending a lot of money, so then they have to figure out how to make money to offset their spending problem. Very similar to some people I know, sure they like nice new and expensive stuff, and they often buy it...to find out that they gotta work OT, or multiple jobs just to pay for it all. And these are the the same people that vote for the leaders we have in the high office, as if those leaders are gonna solve their problems. But they promise to, and they buy into it with a vote, to find out that they didn't do squat (or very little), yet these people keep doing the same things over and over and over, including voting for the ones who make the promise that "if you are poor you are going to become un-poor"--and nothing could be further from the truth.
yeah sure some of us got a minimum wage rate increase, but we also have more taxes taken out, and the cost of living went up---way up--so where did we get? NOWHERE. Many of us tried to tell ya that but ya didn't listen. People see dollar signs and that's what they vote for. Once again follow the money.
The definition of ignorant is "not knowing". The definition of stupid, is knowing that something isn't what it's presented to you as, and doing it anyway. And for that, there are an aweful lot of stupid people out there, and I honestly wish that I could reach out to a bunch of them to point out their mistakes in hope that they'll see them and act differently the next time. For years I tried. As I age, I see that we as a whole are also getting more stubborn and with that, we often don't listen. yes that is a challenge to look at all sides, not just the one you or I want to see.
