This happened to me a bunch of times as a child visiting US from Chile where they don't break out the tax, saying Oh I can get this 4.95 thing at the BullshMart

This happened to me a bunch of times as a child visiting US from Chile where they don't break out the tax, saying Oh I can get this 4.95 thing at the BullshMart, then you take $5 and you get there and oh you need to come up with 38 cents in tax, sorry, waste of a trip. I get it if you live in USA you can adapt, but if you're coming from a different country it's a burden and it's wrong. And weirdly it's the same right-wing guys in each country including the tax in Chile and breaking it out in US. In USA of course they want the citizens to hate taxes because taxes in USA support democracy, and they figure by making it a painful hidden cost they will get me, for instance, to hate taxes instead of putting them first. And I did in fact hate them when I visited, the trick worked on me, despite being an excellent math student. In Chile, it's because the state needs money from somewhere for concrete, courts and cops (the three things right-wing guys actually think taxes are good for) and also for incredibly shitty orphanages and "albergues" whose purpose is be able to construct arguments around that there are in fact already orphanages and "albergues" to deny real assistance...So they have regressive taxes, mostly paid for by VAT. So poor people and to a lesser extent the middle class don't protest that they're the tax base, they hide the tax. And in fact if you look at fancy magazines like Ed, an interior design magazine in Chile, they do break out the tax to communicate that you can get out of paying it, tee hee, or split it with the seller, on a $4000 USD Ottoman.