Add-Ons Add Up

The Washington Post has a story about the proliferation of extra fees tacked on to just about every product or service under the sun. A couple of good insights make it worth the read.

Comments

Re:Yes

[c.emmertfoster]

When I worked in retail we had a particular phrase to describe this phenomenon:

"Welcome to $BUSINESS, assume the position!"

Oh, the fees you'll pay!

[BitGeek]

The one that really gets me is a %5 tax on my phone bill to pay for WW2! WW2 has been over forever, but that tax put there to pay for it still is being collected.

Or the %20 in federal taxes added to airline tickets (one of which is the insulting 9/11 fee- a tragedy that wouldn't have occurred if the feds hadn't stopped pilots from carrying guns to prevent hijackings, and taken over airport security, ensuring poor security.)

Then there's the %50 fee on gas, that you never see because its built into the price- but is all tax. A brilliant deception because people all over hate oil companies for charging so much for gas, even though they aren't!

And in my state liquor is market up about %50, of course since the state owns all the stores where you can buy it, you never see this add on fee- its built into the price.

And lets not forget cigarettes-- a %50 markup in my state as well. But you don't see this fee because its built into the price. Another hidden tax. And people hate tobacco companies, hmm, noticing a trend.

Now the scum are starting to propose "vice" fees on fattening foots, so we can expect to pay an extra %50 for the privilege of buying a big mac that big momma government doesn't want you to eat?

Never mind the fees that you have to pay before you even get the money that you use to pay fees with!

The %15 taken out for social security-- you'll never see that money again.

The hidden income taxes that your employer "pays" but that you really are the one paying-- for instance unemployment insurance. (Let me buy it privately- I know I'll get a better deal! When they charge you four times as much as the service costs, how much of it is really taxes?)

Not to mention workers comp. I'm a programmer. Why do I have to pay workers comp-- again, let me keep my own damn money and I'll buy my own insurance and get a much better deal!

(And if you think its not your own money, the employer pays for it, you might be a liberal. This is an absurd distinction- every employer counts all these taxes in the total cost of employing you and so you must be worth more than that to the employer for them to hire you-- that is you have to earn all the money, plus their profit, to make it worth while to hire you. If they didn't have to pay so many fees, you would get more cash, because you'd still earn the same amount of profit for them that you do now.)

Even if you only make $36k a year- the average salary- you're paying half your income in taxes- and that's just direct. The things you buy, would be %30 or more cheaper if there wasn't a federal income tax, etc. (And the value of the services you get from the government? Less than %10 of what you pay in taxes-- thats how much you're being ripped off.)

AS they say, if you're not outraged, you're not paying attention.

So I don't mind companies adding fees- if I don't like them, I can always refuse to do business with them, they need them anyway to cover the ever increasing tax burden they are being saddled with-- and that tax burden you don't get to opt out of if you don't like it.

At least let us invest our own social security money if we choose to-- there's no acceptable reason not to, unless it really is just a fund for the congress to raid whenever they want a raise.