Stephen Sprunk writes:
Here in many (if not all) parts of Europe, the price that you pay for
something already has relevant taxes figured in.

That way seems more logical. It's certainly more efficient.

.... and in my experience it makes for a lot more peace-of-mind when
shopping. Even though one _can_ just mentally add on the tax rate
when looking at an item, there's something really comforting about
knowing that the price shown on the tag is actually the exact amount
of money you'll have to fork over.

This is especially true for high-priced items (where the difference
isn't trivial), but it's also is really nice for _low_ priced items,
where you can actually look at the amount of money you have in your
hand, and be completely sure you'll have enough...

[I suppose one reason U.S. retail businesses would vehemently object
to a VAT or "more honest labelling" regulations, is that the
"perceived price" of their goods would go up, even if the amount paid
by customers stayed the same...]

-Miles

--
Selfish, adj. Devoid of consideration for the selfishness of others.