A couple of weeks ago, I posted a blog about taxation, tea parties and town hall civility. I had one other point, that I thought I would let rest, until I found a related infographic. I am really excited about infographics. I will be posting some of my own very soon. My first glance at them was in Allison Arieff’s blog at The New York Times. The blog is about a much deeper issue, a national design policy, which I plan on writing a lot more about – in both research and the blogosphere, but right now, I am getting side tracked.
I found a wonderful infographic about how much money stays in your community when you shop local versus when you shop at a big box retailer. I think this is such an important topic. When people talk about taxes — and not wanting them because it takes money away from you being able to go to the hardware store (this was the example given from the gentleman from the James Madison Institute) do they ever consider that there really is no more local hardware store?
So lets do the math on this one. If local sales tax is almost 8% – and 57% of the money leaves Tallahassee, isn’t that a 65% tax? Wouldn’t this be a higher tax than most “socialist” countries? I could very possibly be missing some numbers here, but I just think its a strikingly high percentage that isn’t discussed that often. That is why it is important for the Economic Development Council’s in Tallahassee and other cities help provide incentives — not just for larger companies to come into a community, but also for smaller businesses to be able to thrive. As Friedman said it earlier in the week, “Start-Ups, Not Bailouts.”
So, Shop Local Tallahassee, and power to the people.
Here is link one and link two to a documentary by my coband on this very issue, Small Shops in the Age of the Big Box.
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