Monday, May 07, 2012

Happy 25th Birthday, Loonie

Today is the 25th anniversary of the creation of the Loonie one dollar coin. It's nice to think that in 25 years it's actually worth something. Thinking about that made me think of the day the GST came out. I went to buy a Slurpee at 7-Eleven, and the price went up! How did that make sense! Price went up, plus there was a TAX on top of everything. What the hell. That was the day I learned about how economics works. Everything went up in price by 7%. I can't remember a single store that lowered the price of their product due to the fact that the hidden sales tax came off and was replaced by a value added tax. I suppose the price of conversion convinced retailers that it was better for them to just increase inflation that year than to play fair, but still, that's why I dislike the GST. But I guess I'm used to it now, as we all are. Good ol' stockholm syndrome.

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