Last night on the local evening TV news there was a report about a regional restaurant franchise that shocked customers with a 2% fee appearing on the bill to cover Obamacare insurance costs. (The video doesn't seem to be online, but the story can be read at Restaurants Charging Customers For Employee Health Care.)
The TV version had some customer interviews, and they were not happy about it.
The concept is simple. When government raises taxes on a business the business can either pass the expense onto the customer, cut employees' salaries, or accept a lower profit. The disappointed customers seemed to think the company should eat the cost.
If even Harvard professors didn't understand that they were going to have to pay for Obamacare, then we can't fault the typical Buffalo Wild Wing diner for not comprehending the concept. But it certainly goes a long way toward explaining how easily socialism became acceptable to so many people.
There's a silver lining. Perhaps the fee on the restaurant bill is like the monolith in the movie "2001, a Space Odyssey." It's a dawn of enlightenment. People may be realizing for the first time that there's a cost to socialism, and they're going to pay it.
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