4 ms·

I've seen gas pumps that prominently enumerate all the taxes included in the price, which were more than 50% in some European countries. It's a bit political fo

by Zak 1y ago

I've seen gas pumps that prominently enumerate all the taxes included in the price, which were more than 50% in some European countries. It's a bit political for a business to call attention to otherwise-hidden taxes in the prices of its products, but both rational and fair.

EvanAnderson 1y ago
Ohio has those stickers, mandated by law (2017 Ohio Fuel Tax Transparency Act). A Republican legislature passed the law, signed by a Republican governor.
- duxup 1y ago
  Republicans used to have some semblance of ideology that you could kinda count on them sticking to occasionally... ish. That's all gone now. It doesn't even matter what they said 5 minutes ago, hate big tech?, next thing you know they hand big tech the purse strings of government.
  - mingus88 1y ago
    Their ideology is power. The writing has been on the wall demographically for decades. Their base has been shrinking, fewer people are religious, white folk are losing status. It’s become harder and harder to win an election for turn since GW Bush, and even that went down to the courts. Many districts are only red due to blatant gerrymandering. But even that gets harder to wield so what seems to have happened is that while they still can ostensibly win an election, they crank the wheel and destroy the rules so that they never have to compete on a level field again
  - joquarky 1y ago
    One of their biggest ideologies fell apart when the 2008 financial crisis occurred. The Tea Party picked up the remnants and spiraled.
jeroenhd 1y ago
I think including the taxes on fuel would be good, as it'd show people the ridiculous amount of money they're paying to maintain the infrastructure their cars use (though fuel taxes often don't come close to covering road maintenance). Such a system could get complicated quickly, though, and showing the profit margin also wouldn't be of interest to many salespeople. Making fuel price total up to €2.09/L is easy if petrol were only taxed at €0.7891/L, but the 21% VAT being applied to the total sales price after the per liter tax (and the 9% profit margin) makes the math a tad more complex. I don't think you could call those taxes "hidden" though. Anyone can look up how much tax they pay. It's not like taxes are sent out in secret to gas pumps every day.
- aaronbaugher 1y ago
  When my state jacked up fuel taxes a few years ago, some local gas stations started printing the $/gallon that went to taxes on stickers on the pumps. Seems like a good thing: more information is always good, as long as it's correct. Same thing would be true of this tariff info -- good if correct. It didn't last on the gas pumps, though, because ultimately people don't have a choice -- most have to drive to get to work -- so they get used to it.
  - Zak 1y ago
    > ultimately people don't have a choice -- most have to drive to get to work -- so they get used to it. I don't think the intent of gas stations displaying the taxes is to convince people to use less gas. It's to create political pressure to reduce the tax.

by Zak 1y ago

EvanAnderson 1y ago

Ohio has those stickers, mandated by law (2017 Ohio Fuel Tax Transparency Act). A Republican legislature passed the law, signed by a Republican governor.

duxup 1y ago
Republicans used to have some semblance of ideology that you could kinda count on them sticking to occasionally... ish. That's all gone now. It doesn't even matter what they said 5 minutes ago, hate big tech?, next thing you know they hand big tech the purse strings of government.
- mingus88 1y ago
  Their ideology is power. The writing has been on the wall demographically for decades. Their base has been shrinking, fewer people are religious, white folk are losing status. It’s become harder and harder to win an election for turn since GW Bush, and even that went down to the courts. Many districts are only red due to blatant gerrymandering. But even that gets harder to wield so what seems to have happened is that while they still can ostensibly win an election, they crank the wheel and destroy the rules so that they never have to compete on a level field again
- joquarky 1y ago
  One of their biggest ideologies fell apart when the 2008 financial crisis occurred. The Tea Party picked up the remnants and spiraled.

jeroenhd 1y ago

I think including the taxes on fuel would be good, as it'd show people the ridiculous amount of money they're paying to maintain the infrastructure their cars use (though fuel taxes often don't come close to covering road maintenance). Such a system could get complicated quickly, though, and showing the profit margin also wouldn't be of interest to many salespeople. Making fuel price total up to €2.09/L is easy if petrol were only taxed at €0.7891/L, but the 21% VAT being applied to the total sales price after the per liter tax (and the 9% profit margin) makes the math a tad more complex. I don't think you could call those taxes "hidden" though. Anyone can look up how much tax they pay. It's not like taxes are sent out in secret to gas pumps every day.

aaronbaugher 1y ago
When my state jacked up fuel taxes a few years ago, some local gas stations started printing the $/gallon that went to taxes on stickers on the pumps. Seems like a good thing: more information is always good, as long as it's correct. Same thing would be true of this tariff info -- good if correct. It didn't last on the gas pumps, though, because ultimately people don't have a choice -- most have to drive to get to work -- so they get used to it.
- Zak 1y ago
  > ultimately people don't have a choice -- most have to drive to get to work -- so they get used to it. I don't think the intent of gas stations displaying the taxes is to convince people to use less gas. It's to create political pressure to reduce the tax.