🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <4ppq9e$inn@hpscit.sc.hp.com>,
Danny Low <dlow@ppg01.sc.hp.com> wrote:
>Paulo Santos (pas@cc.gatech.edu) wrote:
>: The rationale, as someone already explained, is that it is much easier to
>: raise taxes on non-voting non-residents than on voting residents.
>: Evidently this is unfair, and something similar (taxation without
>: representation) has led to a nice party is Boston a few generations ago.
>: What you see is today's politicians at their best.
>
>There is one difference here. YOU benefit from this practice
>locally as well. YOUR local community is doing the same thing to
>tourists who come through. So what goes around comes around in
>this case.

WRONG.  My community does not do this.  In the state of New Jersey,
sales tax is 6%.  If you rent a car, the tax is also still 6% (as of last week
this was certainly still true).. If you stay in a hotel, it is also 6%
(last I checked).

Previously I lived in Georgia.  There was no extra tax on rental cars
(although the politicians were starting to entertain that idea) but there
was a hotel tax which I always opposed.

My stake on this issue is that visitors should pay no more than locals
for the public services.  I have cancelled a visit to Bulgaria because
they wanted to charge me $50 for a visa.  I was going to leave much more
than $50 in hard currency and local taxes in Bulgaria, yet they felt that
they should get these extra $50.  Well, they got nothing, and I went elsewhere.
I also let them know about it (not that they care).

Paulo Santos