Looks like I'm not the only European that has seen a price tag of $9.50 on a product I wanted, only to find out that the $10 bill in my pocket was only two thirds of the amount needed!

Look at us poor Europeans with our metric-system money-math

Was the markup just sales tax or did it include tips or extra fees? A 35% plus sales tax seems awfully high where in the US was it?

A ~10% sales tax is normal, and that will bring $9.50 over the $10 limit.

I'm American, actually. I've just managed not to have my brain poisoned by Libertarianism. (The capital L sort.)

> The amount of tax is equally useless to me.

Not if you are voting someone in a political office in the next election.

Then you can look up how much the tax is when you are making your voting decision. This isn’t secret information.

The government routinely hides what you're paying in taxes. Case in point - the so-called "Employer's Contribution" to your social security taxes. There's no such thing. That comes out of your pocket, too.

This is because employers have no interest in what your paycheck amount is. They care about "total compensation", which is what it costs the employer to employ you. Seattle added some "payroll taxes" and successfully sold the fiction that it was the businesses paying it. The businesses did indeed write the check, but it was the employee's money.

Indeed - UK the same. The government makes so much hay out of persuading the electorate that businesses are somehow entirely separate from them.

Do you really think people don't know that the tax deductions on their payslip are actually their money?

The "Employer's Contribution" is not listed as a deduction on the payslip.

Actually, no... At least not quite the same way.

In the US, a lot of people think of tax day as a "good day" because they get a refund from the government! Psychologically it is very different if you steal the money before they even see it than take it from them once they have felt it under their tongue.

Plus, I think the OP is referring to money that is technically paid by the employer but effectively passed through to the employee, because that's what happens, not some item on their payslip.

I can look it up if I am already motivated, but it is much easier for me to convince you to take a collective political action if you feel the depth of the government's dong in your rear end every day.

Nope. Don't care.

I care about what effects the policies are having, not how much I pay in taxes. The impact of the policies is what actually matters. The tax rate is one tiny detail. I'm not wired to automatically assume collective action is evil, so I only care about it in the context of the effects of all policies combined.