Yesterday, a friend of mine, Kyle-Anne Shiver, wrote this post on her blog. She wrote about herself, Walmart and other department stores. Here’s some interesting sideline information that she gave:
I have loved shopping since I bought my first full ounce of chocolate-covered peanuts for 2 cents at Woolworth’s, using my own allowance. I was five then.
Yes. That was 52 years ago. Since then, as Kyle-Anne herself would admit, the dollar has unfortunately been devaluated due to inflation. A cheap dollar is good for us foreigners because it has made American goodies and visas cheaper. But Americans themselves have been hit hard. That’s why the following is more important than ever:
I’m 57 now, and I can literally smell a bargain at 100 yards the way a great hunter can sense his prey in a forest.
I shop only one day each week, using a detailed list on a form that I designed myself. I operate within a budget amount and only use cash. I never take a credit card with me. To me, shopping is like warfare; it’s my wits against theirs. And I always shop to win.
American shoppers didn’t pay any sales tax in 1956 nor now, but they do pay other usurious taxes (PIT, for example). What a PITy! They are disadvantaged, because although they do pay such taxes to the IRS, most foreigners who shop in America don’t (the cheap dollar has even attracted many tourist shoppers to the US) – neither a PIT nor a sales tax. That’s why the Fairtax should be instituted.
