Games@lemmy.worldbySilentStriker@piefed.social
10 hours

Are both games & consoles expensive in the US when you factor in both sales tax and minimum wage?

English

This is something every country has (no matter where, all have a form of VAT and sales tax) but a majority of nations include VAT within the price of the product whilst in the US that’s calculated upon checkout (so technically you are not paying $789 for a steam deck since you add tax, so that amount alone isn’t final).

So in reality, it’s closer to $820 or a game that’s $80 ends up to $95 but are either purchases possible whilst earning $15 per hour? Take the PS5: it’s ¥97,980 inc. 10% CT ($603) while the same is $650 but closer to $680 or more when you add SALES TAX, you can buy the same console in Japan since taxes are included.

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    • hooferboof@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2 hours

      Sales tax is a regressive tax that disproportionately feels more expensive if you have lower income. Its the same as a speeding ticket or a fine being ‘the cost of doing buisness’ if you’ve got enough money to throw around.

    • RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6 hours

      Here in South California, the poverty line is $100,000 USD. If you make less than that per year, you are considered poor. Cost of living is horrendous here, so you can imagine that makes everything feel expensive. And its only going to keep getting worse. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear in 10 yeas that its $175k.

      If I have to choose between one game and a meal for my family, the game loses every time.

    • Quincannon@piefed.socialEnglish
      10 hours

      In Pennsylvania the sales tax is 6%. A PlayStation 5 disc version off amazon new is $559.99, after tax it would cost $593.59. Minimum wage is $7.25/hour. A person making minimum wage would need to work 81.8 hours to pay for a PS5(disc). Forgot to include a game example Wolverine is listed on Amazon for $69.99 after tax it would cost $74.19. At minimum wage it’d take 10.23 hours to pay for it.

    • Deconceptualist@leminal.spaceEnglish
      10 hours

      Minimum wage has long fallen into the poverty zone in the US. As the saying goes, everything is expensive when you’re poor. And sales tax doesn’t help one bit. It’s a ‘flat’ tax meaning it doesn’t scale with income; a poor person and a billionaire pay the same sales tax for an identical purchase.

    • LemmyEntertainYou@piefed.socialEnglish
      13 hours

      Gaming is massively expensive if you obsessively chase the latest AAA experiences. If you stick to older games and lower end or older hardware then it’s one of the best value hobbies around.

        • BreakerSwitch@lemmy.worldEnglish
          7 hours

          Yooooo! Anything worth reccing? That’s deeply nostalgic, and a friend has been starting dev on one, so it might be worth seeing how they’ve progressed in the decades since MUDs were commonplace

    • BruisedMoose@piefed.socialEnglish
      12 hours

      I’m sorry, but I really don’t understand your second paragraph. I think you’re saying that the PS5 list price in Japan (which includes tax) is about $50 lower than the US (not including tax). But I’m not sure how that translates to US defaultism or being “telling” of…something?

    • IWW4@lemmy.zipEnglish
      13 hours

      Minimum wage has nothing to do with either.

      Game consoles and games are expensive even pre-tax…

      Now the quality of a particular game could mean a great ROI on both.