I went up to our local party store the other day. It sells lottery tickets, a variety of scratch off tickets, beer, and cigarettes and related and whiskey and its variants. A truly sinful place.
I went to purchase my weekly piece of the “Fuckallofyou” dream because “I am now rich! Rich!!!” that the state foists on its suckers….er “citizens.” Plus a bottle of VO. Yes, this southern boy favors a touch of the Canadian rye. Jack has always been too much for me and Mark lost its mark when the new owners took over. Stoly is okay from time to time but the last Bombay gin martini I savored was in Phoenix after Tennessee had just whipped the men of Florida State and been crowned National Champions. But I digress.
Picking up my purchase I strode to the checkout point while artfully cutting off an elderly lady caring a bottle of wine but losing to guy who had a bottle of scotch in his grasp. Just as he presented his purchase, “The computer’s down,” came from the clerk.
And then much confusion. Two clerks and one of the owners shared head scratching and general commiserating. Minutes passed. The other owner shows up while one of the clerks is calling whoever is supposed to be in charge of fixing the computer. More minutes pass. Finally owner number two mans up, opens the cash draw with a key, lays down a tablet and announces.
“We’ll do it manually until they fix it.”
And grabbing a calculator he writes down the name of the scotch, the size, the price and then asks, “How much is the sales tax?”
Obviously he is not in charge of bookkeeping.
“9.75% said one of the clerks,” and he used it and added $2.54 to the price of the scotch.
“What’s that?” asked the customer.
“Sales tax,” said the owner.
“That’s almost 10%,” opined the customer.
“Hmmm, you’re right,” said the owner.
“You add 10% to everything?” asked the customer.
Sensing that the sheeple behind were getting restless the owner replied with a finality in his tone, “Yes. It’s the law.”
“10%?”
“No, 9.75%.”
“Why didn’t it show before??”
“The 9.75% is shown on the receipt. You just haven’t looked.”
“That’s too much.”
“It’s the law.”
“Way too much.”
“Call the mayor.”
“Shit,” said the now departing customer, “keep it.”
Now you know why they deduct payroll taxes before you get the check.
I mean, a bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing.
"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them." - Karl Popper
“It’s the presumption that Obama knows how all these industries ought to be operating better than people who have spent their lives in those industries, and a general cockiness going back to before he was president, and the fact that he has no experience whatever in managing anything. Only someone who has never had the responsibility for managing anything could believe he could manage just about everything.” - Thomas Sowell in Reason Magazine
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