The Idiot Tax

This morning at a local Phoenix coffee shop, I nearly bought a large café au lait for $3.89. The shop’s large coffee, however, is $1.89. Given the way American coffee houses are, that means they wanted to charge me an extra $2 just to warm up my milk. This is an idiot tax, and as the Phoenix economy falters I’ve been seeing it a lot. An idiot tax is basically just finding ways to make money off of people who aren’t smart enough to know they’re paying for something they don’t need. Like the coffee – if I hadn’t been sufficiently jarred by the price change, I would have basically made a $2 do this particular Phoenix business without so much as getting a badge for my jacked that says, “Idiot for the recovery!” You can see it everywhere these days. Airlines now charge a checked luggage surcharge. Like the coffee shop, you are getting charged a lot more for very little return. I have flown for nearly 20 years, and unless I was gone for longer than a week, I have never had to check a bag. Some forethought in packing and you can do everything with carry-on. The ultimate offenders are traffic cameras – sometimes euphemistically called, “road safety cameras.” If I’m the first person to tell you this, please let me etch it permanently onto your brain: Road safety cameras are not there to make roads safer. They are there to help generate income. Here in Arizona, the budget shortfall was anticipated months ago, and a flurry of camera vans and permanent traffic enforcement cameras went up. Have people started driving more safely? Have there been fewer accidents? Don’t expect to see those statistics, because they aren’t the point. If everyone did suddenly drive the speed limit and the cameras had no tickets to mail, I’m pretty sure we’d start seeing commercials begging us to, “please speed more - we really need the cash. C’mon – please!?!” As everyone’s purses get tighter, there will be more and more attempts to get your money by any legal means necessary. (And a few that aren’t, but that’s for another time.) So I encourage you to be smart. The times when you could worry about looking cheap, as no one can afford the luxury of lazy spending any longer. Tomorrow morning, tell the person at the coffee shop, “I’m sorry, that’s insane – please change my order to a regular cup of coffee, and ask the owner to feel very ashamed.”

About the Author: Eric Reid

I am the Social Media Services Manager for Off Madison Ave. I've been with the company since 2006, when I was hired to do SEO, and link building in particular. When social networking sites started cropping up, at first I started using them to create backlinks - but they weren't the best for that, given all of the "nofollow" attributes. However, I did see the potential for all of the direct referral traffic they represent. Since then I've been actively pursuing both tactics for clients: Links that can help them for search, and social postings that get them involved in the conversation. It's about the coolest job you could ever get. ;)

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