Wednesday, November 28, 2012

It Didn't Go Far Enough

Denny's franchisee John Metz had a good idea.  Rather than raise his prices to cover the costs associated with the ACA, he was going to institute a 5% surcharge so that patrons would know why the cost of their meal had gone up.

People were outraged.  Mr.Metz's comments were misconstrued as representing Denny's policy instead of it being just his franchise locations.  Sales fell.  Denny's corporate got anxious.  Telephone calls were made.

And the makings of a great idea swiftly fell.

It would have been a better idea if Mr. Metz had created his surcharge that covered all of his tax liabilities instead of singling out the ACA.  Then he would have been doing a real public service.

We had a couple gas stations in the area that put stickers on their pumps letting people know how much they were paying in taxes as a part of every dollar spent on gas.  It was interesting and informative.  I think it would have had a more lasting impact if such information was required on every gas pump.

But y'all already know that I'm a little off on the subject of taxes....

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