If You Can Afford Cell Phones, iPads, Video Games, Nike Shoes, Netflix, Then Under The ACA...

[MADem]

48. Your point is entirely valid--it was the tone of your OP that has some up-in-arms.

Your point about the unrelentingly regressive nature of VAT is right on the mark as well.

Having lived in UK, this is what I have observed about costs in the shops. If you take away the £ sign, and substitute a $ sign, the price for whatever is being sold makes absolute sense. Otherwise, the foreign visitor from USA is paying a premium of fifty to seventy five cents on every dollar for goods or services, give or take, depending upon the GBP-USD rate of exchange.

Right now, as of this writing, a pound costs just under a buck sixty--so, say you're paying a pound for the thing you are buying, but in actuality, you're paying a buck for the thing itself, because that is all it is worth, and sixty cents is going for the VAT, basically.

People visiting UK meet people and learn what their salaries are, and through a quick calculation in their heads, say "Oooooh--doesn't he make a nice wage for THAT job!" But then, after they learn about high rents, absolutely VICIOUS supermarket prices (tiny cans at twice the price!), and absurd costs for everything, from consumer goods to electronics (save those that didn't fall off the truck, of course), they start to realize that the "good wage" they were a bit envious of is barely enough to make ends meet.

When Brits go to US overpriced tourist traps and marvel at how inexpensive everything is, you know there's a real difference in spending power.