On the other hand, that's probably why sales tax is around 5%? whereas VAT is 20%+

Sales Tax ranges from 0% through to 12%

I have to pay it if I order from Amazon or Etsy, for example. If I order from the US, I pay later.

Every sales receipt has the VAT right on the receipt. I can see it every single time. If I order from inside the country, I can see it before I pay.

It isn't hidden. It isn't secret.

It wasn't even secret to an immigrant that didn't yet understand enough Norwegian to know.

What I do get is to be reasonably certain what I'm going to pay when I get to the cash register. I don't have to do mental gymnastics with a total if I'm tight on money - like I have many times in the US. It won't change if I'm in a different part of Norway. There simply aren't as many price surprises like that.

Greece is in the EU, which means they are paying at least 15% VAT on most stuff, assuming everyone is paying their taxes (which might or might not be). Trust me, even being built into the cost, everyone knows how much they are paying in taxes on goods. Greek folks aren't unintelligent. This sort of tax isn't a secret any more than sales tax was in the US.

Regulation is warranted in monopoly/oligopoly situations. Either by changing the rules to favour/promote increased competition, or, as the EU has done here, by capping the fees which they can charge.

Merchants are typically happy to take them, because their fees are lower.

> Regulation is warranted in monopoly/oligopoly situations. Either by changing the rules to favour/promote increased competition, or, as the EU has done here, by capping the fees which they can charge.

I suspect you might want to look into lightening regulations, so that upstart competitors have an easier time entering the market. Instead of piling on ever more regulations that only those who are big enough to afford an army of lawyers and accountants and lobbyists can manage.

This is unlikely to happen in the US, however, where market-dominant corporations have huge lobbying power and can ensure the rules are written in their favour, and any potential upstarts drowned in a sea of red tape.

Instead, private credit cards are built into the system. That makes no sense to me. The US system of credit cards does very little for economic stability or growth. It has clear harms to the vulnerable and it hardly benefits the economically stable. Instead, there should be a system of frictionless debit payment. Governments shouldn’t pick winners and losers, but they should build infrastructure for healthy markets.

Signing credit card slips? What is that? Clearly irrational. Visa and Mastercard are not just normal market players. American capitalism would function better without the excessive role of credit cards in commerce.

Here in the UK we have frictionless debit payments and we all use credit cards. Credit cards have a safety net in case of fraud. Much better.

Cash is 15%, the rest are various types of bank transfer. Note this is all transactions, online and in-person, including things like subscription renewals.

(How can a debit card be cloned, anyway? I'm not aware of any case of this, only a possible problem in the USA where data is 'cloned' onto a magstripe card.)

https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/system/files/2022-08/UKF%20Paym...

Er yes, you're right about debit card cloning I think. I'll retract that one :) However if purchase something that doesn't work your CC company is jointly liable (crazily enough) and if your card details leak you have protection against fake purchases. Neither is the case for debit card use.

[0] https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/data-and-research/data/card-spe...

In this scenario, it is much easier to change the sales tax at the register than to reprice the entire store every time one of the several sales tax authorities decides to change the rates or rules.