Originally Posted by
jackal
Perhaps its due to the different political culture, but I would suspect that most Americans you ask would say that they do care about this. I certainly do. It's one last, little bastion of transparency in government. Hide the tax, and it will go up--and people will not notice and eventually stop caring, as has happened with income taxes.
^^
This is all slightly off-topic but a Canadian federal government was defeated and the governing party wiped out in the 1990s by instituting the
Goods and Services Tax, Canada's VAT. As some of their strategists said, their single biggest fatal mistake was in
not hiding the tax, as had been the case with a previous excise tax at the manufacturing level.
If there's anybody who really believes governments mandate by law the inclusion of taxes within prices for the
convenience of the taxpayer, please contact me for details about a magnificent American landmark, a bridge, that I can sell to non-residents for a special all-taxes-included price.
I don't mind
not tipping in other countries and I don't mind tipping in the U.S. and Canada. YMMV.
Cheers,
Fredd