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Part of the problem is that in the US, everything cost about 2x+ as much as you would think and the reason why is taxes. Being self-employed means you pay almos

Part of the problem is that in the US, everything cost about 2x+ as much as you would think and the reason why is taxes. Being self-employed means you pay almost 40% of all earnings in taxes. When I hear a quote, I take ~10% and estimate that's the cost of the parts and I can fix it myself. One problem with this though is that some thing require specialized tools to fix. Unless you can borrower them, it's not worth buying them for a one off repair.

mindslight 2y ago
Government taxes are at least just a multiple. Private taxes (aka insurance) is a huge fixed sum overhead every year, regardless of how many customers someone has. This keeps new entrants out of the market, and makes small time operations to close up shop. From what I understand those rates have been skyrocketing lately, but nobody is really talking about it except out of very some narrow contexts like consumer facing house+auto insurance. I suspect frustration with this is a big part driving support for the populist reactionary movement to rip down society, despite it being set to make the problem even worse.