Failure to consider taxes, of course.
This morning I dropped off my car at the shop. The owner and I agreed that as soon as he thought the cost would exceed the estimate of $600, he would call for approval. No call.
Later in the day, the owner called to let me know my car was ready. Since I was unable to pick it up before he closed for the evening, we settled over the phone — for $640.50. Huh?
I asked about the additional $40.50 and he replied, “Tax.” Ah, yes.Tax.
I had considered the estimate to include tax while he had only considered the estimate to be the cost associated with his work — the state sales tax being my business.
Since I usually ask for “the cost out the door,” I don’t fault him for our failure to communicate. But I do despise the whole matter.
$600 is what I considered fair. I was OK paying that amount to have my car fixed. And I had no problem with the shop owner receiving the money — we had agreed to the exchange.
But state forced its way into our exchange and exacted an additional $40.50. An amount that is over the top. It always is.
Note: Sadly, I now recognize how many times I assume away the tax as just another line item on an invoice. I should always consider that line with disgust. It’s the fitting emotion.
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Oh yes, the shop owner is indeed at fault. He is practicing fraud. (Would you think differently if he told you the additional $40.50 was for the parts he put on your car or the cost of heating his building while working on it?) But that isn’t all. This type of tax is specifically immoral and the tax collector is collecting it from you while trying to dodge the moral responsibility for the theft.
When it became necessary to cease any communication with someone Jesus said, “let him be to you as a sinner and a tax gatherer.” (Matt. 18:17) Tax collectors are to be rejected as evil.
The present government systems are financially based on the practice of getting your neighbor to collect taxes from you. Without this co-option of the populace, the present level of taxation could not be maintained.
Okay, let’s be fair- the reason Jesus said that was because the publicani were the most immediate representatives of the subjugation of the Jews to Rome, and their Jewish agents were despised as collaborators. It’s not legitimate to read that passage is a blanket denunciation of all tax collectors everywhere.
Most people on this site seem to agree that a formal government based on a combination of violent force and taxation is unnecessary for the preservation and prosperity of society. The next logical deduction is that if it is unnecessary it is immoral. People who collaborate in an attempt to subjugate their fellow man should be despised.
The blanket denunciation of all tax collectors everywhere is not an interpretation of the scriptural passage but merely a consistent application of it since Christians are now in a situation analogous to that of the Jews’ subjugation to Rome. Christians have absolutely no obligation to prop up the kingdoms of this world and those who do so are collaborators with evil.
It’s not unnecessary, it’s anathema. You can’t have taxation and a prosperous society.
What what WHAT!?
“You can’t have taxation and a prosperous society.”
That is, America can’t exist? We’re the most prosperous society so far developed by anyone.
nor was jesus a jewish nationalist.
Matt 18:17 is part if a passage that covers dealing with resolving sin and offenses between members of the church (known today as Christians) and I don’t know about treating businesses (our modern sales-tax collectors) as anathema according to Biblical standards is a correct application of what Jesus is saying.
Recall, that tax collectors in Roman times were typically guilty of enriching themselves by over-taxing (requiring more payment than they sent up to Rome) and extortion (when people did not pay). In Luke 3:13 Jesus tells the tax collectors coming to be baptized “Don’t collect any more than you are required to,” he told them.) He does not tell them to stop collecting taxes. Additionally, he tell the soldiers to not extort, steal by force, and falsely accuse. If the Auto mechanic charged more than the required tax I think you would have a closer application. (I am not saying Jesus is saying the taxes are just; that is a different discussion, and is covered elsewhere in the bible.)
You betcha, Mr. Fedako! My hotel receipt from California would make FDR himself blush. Three taxes and two surcharges. What the heck? It will soon be like Europe, where you can buy an airline ticket and marvel at how the cost of the flight is LESS than the taxes you paid for it!
I find this when I buy plane tickets too. It costs next to nothing, then you get burdened with the equivalent of an extra $80 in taxes. Ok some of these may be maintenance fees for the airport etc so they’d factor into a private firm’s pricing (probably less inefficiently.) Still, how much more of my money do these primitive parasites need? I do wonder how much cheaper things would be without a bevy of egg-headed morons telling me how much I “need” of something and that I will consume it whether or not I like it. Statism is a cult of sorts.
I remember a blurb in an economics textbook- macro, no less- that stated that of the $20,000 the typical family sedan cost in whatever year the book was published, $8,000 was attributable to state action everywhere from the iron mine to the dealer’s lot.
Anybody else seen such a breakdown and have a link to share?
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Garage owner: “Sign right here, please.”
Jim Carrey: “OK. But… there’s no price.”
Garage owner: “There will be.”
(from “The Mask“.)
This reminds me of my cellphone bill. There are more line items for taxes, fees, and surcharges than there are for actual services.
Great point. Failure to consider can lead to failure to communicate. It IS obnoxious and unjust to constantly have to adjust, and consider what real-dollar purchase price will be on an item because of sales-taxes.
But just think of all the grease the government bureaucrats got all over themselves from greasing their palms. Now they are going to have to go to the money launderer. How taxing is their job!!!
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