Gotcha. In the US, if you tried to keep that system, you’d need a different printed MSRP per tax nexus and books in warehouses would no longer be fungible.
It doesn’t “cost extra”, it has a different tax structure. Sure, there might be no sales tax in OR, but there sure is income tax. Just north in WA, it’s the opposite where there is sales tax but no income tax.
Yes, it's on top of VAT. It's usually "discretionary", meaning you can ask to have it taken off the bill, but you must ask and it usually results in being glared at.
What is certainly true is that Americans are culturally more friendly toward strangers. Americans smiling and talking a lot is a cliche at this point. However, I would bet the "best friend" experiences that you have had would be nothing but simple pleasantries to a typical American. Tipping culture has little to do with it; "friendliness" is regarded as an element of excellent service here. Even in situations where no tip is ever expected, such as in a clothing store, workers are trained to be as friendly and overly helpful as possible.
For what it's worth, I have memories of extremely friendly waitstaff in Europe -- dare I say "American-esque". Just this summer, a French bartender in the Marais asked where we were from. When we answered "the US", she launched into a story about a trip she'd taken to New York. She talked about how much she loved seeing a Broadway show, Central Park, and MoMA. I watched her carry on with a British couple and many French patrons in the same way, returning to grab us another glass of wine and chat some more. The French people present seemed just as happy to chat with her as we were.
I have similar stories from London, Florence, Barcelona, and Tokyo (just off the top of my head). It's certainly not common, but I've seen it several times.
Americans often say most Europeans are stiff and uptight. Europeans often think the opposite of Americans. You seem to have a bit of a chip on your shoulder about it, but it's just a cultural difference that you're choosing to find distasteful.
Given the only practical alternative I can imagine would mean to never show a price... yes, the current state of things is more beneficial to the consumer. Again, seeing an pre-tax MSRP price in an ad is better than not having any MSRP in an ad at all.
If you have a practical alternative that could somehow allow for advertising with prices that include tax, I'd love to hear it. (Just to make sure we're on the same page ahead of time: amending the Constitution to strike the Tenth Amendment so that the Federal Government can prevent states from levying their own taxes is not "practical".)
> If tipping is banned in a place (by the local government I mean), where exactly are the "best workers" going to go? Are they going to pack up and move somewhere else?
Tipping was banned in seven US states about a hundred years ago. For the most part, People simply ignored the laws. They were all repealed or found unconstitutional after a couple decades. I am not aware of anywhere in the world where tipping a server is illegal.
> Also, how are the tipped staff the "best workers"? They're just servers. All they have to do is take an order.
"Best workers" would include highly competent servers who are a direct cause of repeat business. A good server adds to the experience beyond the food and ambiance and help turn new customers into regulars. Regulars are the lifeblood of most restaurants.
> It's incredible how much money they expect for this, when it's something that would be more efficiently done with an iPad.
Servers can make suggestions based on your preferences, make sure your dietary restrictions are handled, answer questions about the menu... these are experiences I have all the time and I'm certain an iPad would be worse.
> In US restaurants, they're even too lazy to bring the food for you; I guess they're too busy trying to act like the customer's new best friend.
Servers bring out the food I order. I don't even know how to respond beyond that.
Maybe you're just going to really bad restaurants?
It would require a massive overhaul of the tax code in every state, not to mention that it would require state-by-state coordination because Congress cannot force them to comply. Other countries do it because their constitution generally does not include a clause like the Tenth Amendment.
But wow, the things it would do to national marketing. Imagine an iPhone launch. Tim Cook gets to the pricing slide and it says, "Starting at $1099 in Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon. Check your local store for your pricing in your location." That's our cue to mentally add our local tax rate like we do already, now with the added benefit of feeling bad about where we live.
FYI, ZIP code is not enough to calculate tax rate. You need city and county. 9,000 ZIP codes cross county borders.
Currently, consumers can generally tell if they are getting a reasonable price by comparing the MSRP they see in an ad against the price they see in store. For example, if the nationally advertised price of an Xbox is $500 and Best Buy has it for $500, I know I'm not being swindled.
But if the in-store price is $550? I guess I have to haul out my calculator and ask for the store's tax rate so I can determine whether or not Best Buy is ripping me off and I should take my business elsewhere.
Ideally, they'd show pre-tax price, tax rate, and calculated total price on every tag. Maybe, one day, we'll see action on this in a state or two, but I don't suspect it is high on the lists of any lawmakers.
I'm curious, do books have prices printed on them in the UK? Here in the US, the suggested retail price (pre-tax, obviously) is generally printed by the manufacturer on the back or inside the dust cover of every book.
> Core to this is that the US constitution explicitly enshrines federalism in the tenth amendment (the last part of the "bill of rights"), that explicitly limits the power of the federal government.
I think this is the part that non-Americans fail to understand; we have no central tax authority and that principle is enshrined in our Constitution. Like it or not, so long as the US exists in its current form, so too does our wildly disparate tax code.
> They really shouldn't be advertising false claims in the first place.
Just to be clear, you're suggesting that all pricing be removed from all advertising nationwide. This would clearly be to the detriment of the consumer.
> That one has an easy solution: Just ask for the destination.
Again, this is to the customer's detriment. They have to provide their personal information just to see the price of any item on any website they visit? And that's somehow worse than having to mentally add a percentage to any price they see until checkout? You must be kidding.