RandyRants: $105.45 vs 9%

The rants, and occasional raves, from a guy trapped in today's world.

$105.45 vs 9%

Rant: Sunday, June 15, 2008 at 12:33 PM by Randy

Today, I spent over $100 on gas... yes, this is one of the pain points having of having two cars: they can sometimes cycle together and you have to hit the gas station twice in one day. The Jeep was $51.05 and the Mini was $54.40. I have little to say about that, actually. I mean, sure, gas is priced higher than before, but... well... I feel like we've been getting away with it for a while, considering the price of gas in Canada and the EU. Especially if you adjust today's prices for today's inflation - gas never really tracked along with our countries cost of living; this is the bounce back of that and if you opted to buy stock in oil companies, you probably aren't complaining much at all either... just the other day someone made mention that gasoline is worse now than it was during the shortage in the 70's - I had to plug my ears so my brain didn't ooze out. I'm old enough to remember the "original" gas crisis: lines a mile long and simply no gasoline to be had. The crisis wasn't that it was nearly $2/gallon - the crisis was caused by the fact that no matter how much money you had, you still didn't get gas. There was a shortage rather than a price hike. Rookies.

What does piss me off is the quiet "oops, we just went to a 9% sales tax in King County" bill passage... maybe it was because of the conference or the trip to CT, but I knew nothing about it... and WTF? Nine percent? That has got to be a US record...

Maybe they plan to help with the roads around here by making nets out of money under all of the elevated structures?

Comments: (5)

(latest)

Posted on: June 15, 2008 at 04:41 PM by Tommy Williams

Not even close to a record. When you combine the state and county sales taxes, there are counties in Tennessee (the state where I grew up) with 9.75% sales tax. And it looks like Alabama gets up to 10% according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sales_taxes_in_the_United_States. I was too lazy to read through the rest and look for other higher examples.

But I hadn't heard anything about the 9% sales tax in King County either. Guess I've been too busy looking at national news lately.

Posted on: June 16, 2008 at 10:40 AM by Randy

Oh snap... OK, I don't feel as bad now, but WTF.

Posted on: June 17, 2008 at 09:01 AM by nervous cat

In New York State, like in Tennessee, the counties also want a piece of the sales tax, so you get varying amounts. Some counties in New York go over 9%.

http://www.photobooksonline.com/books/salestax.html"

To add insult to injury, Amazon and Egghead are now charging sales tax for online orders delivered to NY State.

Posted on: June 20, 2008 at 03:33 AM by Tom

I was browsing for a solution to using a new Apple keyboard in XP with Fusion - I think SharpKeys may be it... thanks!

Meanwhile, I hear your comment on gas prices, and you're dead right that US prices are way behind Europe. Here in the UK, regular unleaded is now GBP1.20 a litre - that's $8.96 a US gallon. Of this, specific fuel duty is 50.35p per litre ($3.76 per gallon), before sales tax is charged at 17.5%.

Today a family mini-van - equivalent to a Jeep - costs GBP75-80 to fill up (say, $150). This is what we are used to: UK fuel prices have tended to sit at three times US prices for as long as I can remember.

So no sympathy here at all, I'm afraid - what wouldn't we give to have your tiny US taxes on fuel!

Posted on: June 20, 2008 at 10:29 AM by Randy

Oh, on fuel you don't hear me complain much. Especially after seeing prices in Italy and Canada over the years.

But a sales tax of 17.5%? Yeah, I can see WHY we dumped yer tea in Boston Harbor...