Truth In Advertising
Now that the Christmas commercial jingles have gone back into storage the travel packages are back in full rotation. Get your special weekend getaway, your off peak travel bonus miles super trip, pay only $99.95 to the popular destination of your dreams, if you book today. It is cold outside. Be warm.
The commercials always end:
Tax and the September 11th Security fee are not included in the price.
Your $99.95 trip to Vegas is really $117.23 (I totally made that number up) but its not the airline taking the extra money its the government. Don't you see the little lines on your receipt. Everything after the line is not an increase in price but a tax or fee assessed by big brother to keep you safe and you want to be safe don't you.
Now I understand that the airlines had good lobbiests who convinced the lawmakers that the only way for the airlines to survive the federalization of airport security is if, rather than tax the airlines profits to pay for airline security, the government went straight to the consumer and taxed them for the priviledge of paying money to an airline. Heck if we just took it out of the airlines profits or let em right it down as an expense the stocks would plunge and bad things would happen. I understand the economy is a tricky thing that requires this kind of underhanded work from time to time.
What I don't get is the need to try bull (explicative deleted) the consumer. Why cant they just say that the cost to Vegas for an off peak flight three months from now is $117. 23 heck they can kick it up to an even $120.00. It still sound reasonable. Then people could just look up a price online and say, "Hey it only costs a hondo twenty to go see the table dancers on the strip! If I save five hundred I could easily afford the trip."
I think its time to let the accountants worry about where the money is going and just tell the consumer a straight price. Think how much easier financial planning might be.
More Laters
The commercials always end:
Tax and the September 11th Security fee are not included in the price.
Your $99.95 trip to Vegas is really $117.23 (I totally made that number up) but its not the airline taking the extra money its the government. Don't you see the little lines on your receipt. Everything after the line is not an increase in price but a tax or fee assessed by big brother to keep you safe and you want to be safe don't you.
Now I understand that the airlines had good lobbiests who convinced the lawmakers that the only way for the airlines to survive the federalization of airport security is if, rather than tax the airlines profits to pay for airline security, the government went straight to the consumer and taxed them for the priviledge of paying money to an airline. Heck if we just took it out of the airlines profits or let em right it down as an expense the stocks would plunge and bad things would happen. I understand the economy is a tricky thing that requires this kind of underhanded work from time to time.
What I don't get is the need to try bull (explicative deleted) the consumer. Why cant they just say that the cost to Vegas for an off peak flight three months from now is $117. 23 heck they can kick it up to an even $120.00. It still sound reasonable. Then people could just look up a price online and say, "Hey it only costs a hondo twenty to go see the table dancers on the strip! If I save five hundred I could easily afford the trip."
I think its time to let the accountants worry about where the money is going and just tell the consumer a straight price. Think how much easier financial planning might be.
More Laters
posted by Rich Rosenthal II at 1:40 AM
2 Comments:
You speak the truth.
Sadly, the government one day may take this matter in hand and form committees to address this matter. It will turn into something similar to the Truth in Lending Act, which will require highly paid employees and lawyers to develop forms, disclosures, and administrative processes in the back office. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act will require travel agencies and providers to include these items in their quarterly attestation. Separate teams of federal auditors will be created to monitor the controls that are in place. A new government entity will be created to oversee it all.
Prices will soar, all the in the name of protecting us travelers so that we will know the true price of a trip to Vegas.
So, did you ever finish Atlas Shrugged?
I read most of atlas shrugged I skimmed through the fifty + small print page section where john galt is giving his speech. I put down the fountainhead at the point where the woman deliberately married a mna other than the one she loved. The characters in that one rubbed me the wrong way.
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