Moron of the Day

Chicago just raised its sale tax to 9%, highest in the country.

Listen to this Moron:

"It will have a negligible effect on mom-and-pop businesses, but the big-box stores who deal in volume or large purchases could be negatively affected," said Alderman Brian Doherty, whose ward on Chicago's northwest edge borders many suburbs with lower sales tax rates.

It is tough to sympathize with Chicagoans when they are the ones who elect such patently ignorant politicians such as Alderman Brian Doherty.

How an increased sales tax will hurt big retailers more than the already uncompetitive "mom-and-pops" isn't even a mystery - it is a falsehood.

Politicians should just say that they are raising the sales tax because they need the revenue?

I have attacked this supposed protector of "mom-and-pops" ruse in a previous blog on Walmart.

No Wal-Mart bash is complete without the requisite empathy for the poor “mom and pop” stores that Wal-Mart devours. This canard fulfills the econo-moronic template as the “pitiable victims of rich evil CEOs”. Every time I hear the “mom and pop” lament, I think back to the last air conditioner I bought in Brooklyn. I went out of town to Wal-Mart and got a huge 12,000 btu air conditioner for around $240. The same air conditioner sold at the “mom and pop” hardware store in my neighborhood for $700. Wal-Mart critics don't care about the moms and pops that shop.

It is basic math, if the sales tax goes up 1% on those air conditioners, the Walmart one will rise $2.40 and the "mom-and-pop" one will rise $7.00.

With electorates and politicans this economically ignorant, it is not surprising that large cities are on the expressway to bankruptcy.