imported post
Decoligny wrote:
So, by your thinking, if a store owner decided that they were going to charge 20% tax on all sales, versus the mandated rate set by the state, and the customer who may not be aware of the mandatedrate does business, then the illegal overcharging is fine and dandy as long as the customer doesn'tknow that they have been cheated out of their money.
Taking it one step further, a successful con man is one who can get the mark to willingly hand over the money. Since the person didn't have thier arm twisted and didn't have a gun pointed at them, then no crime has taken place.
I can tell you've never run or owned a business before. They wouldn't need to charge 20% sales tax, they would just raise their prices or add "handling" fees. Every day in virtually everytransaction the customer is unaware of the costs of the products or services they buy. Yet, they still gladly and gleefully hand over their money in exchange for whatever they're buying. Why? Because it's an acceptable transaction to them. That's not a con, its legitimate lawful business!
There is no con here...again you're mis-using words. In a con, the person who gives the money gets nothing (or very little) in return...its nothing more than sophisticated stealing. Nothing of the sort happened here.
The State has absolutely no business mandating the priceof any product or service. None whatsoever. Period. Further, I would argue the State has no business forcing you to purchase any product or service, whether insurance, smog checks, or PPTs. They are running little microcosm fascist empires and its disgusting. If they want to force you to buy something, like a driver's license, then make them set up government run, controlled, and employed operations like the DMV. And not force independent small business to bear the burden of the costs of their unconstitutional, power grabbing, control-freak laws.
Since we are now well beyond UOC, I won't comment on this any further. If you want to continue the debatesend a PM.