There are several kinds of poor taxes. As you progress in income, marginal tax rates can exceed 100% as public assistance benefits phase out. But a poor tax is usually used to mean structural inequalities that make everyday life more expensive and difficult for those with limited financial resources.
There are often reasons for this, based on cost of doing business in high crime areas, or buying preferences of consumers themselves. But those costs can be real. For instance, if you can afford to buy in bulk you can pay less per item but that requires higher income. There are also higher fees for banking services (check cashing stores) than if you have a bank account. There are hacks around these things, and limited access to banking is in large measure the result of government regulation rather than market forces, however the phenomenon is real.
Is… paying for checked bags, inflight wifi, and food at the airport a poor tax, though? If you spend more on a first class ticket, have lounge access, and elite status you don’t get nickel and dimed for those things! Wait, what?
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Having to pay for a burger at the airport isn’t a poor tax.
United Polaris Lounge Burger
With long lines to get into American Express Centurion lounges; food that was once good having become mediocre; and a card that’s become available on a far more mass market basis, the Platinum’s $695 annual fee may be the actual poor tax?
Besides, Capital One’s Venture X at $395 rebates $300 in travel credit (just book an airline ticket through their portal) and gives 10,000 points each year at renewal which is worth more than $100. And it bundles Priority Pass and access to Capital One’s own lounges, which in my view have better food than Centurion lounges (and Chase lounges). You just need to be able to get approved, which is more a function of credit score although some income needed.
Washington Dulles Capital One Lounge
Reagan National Capital One Landing Tapas
Airport food is usually quite bad, and also expensive though, for a reason.
- There are limits on what the government lets you bring through security. TSA, for instance, treats peanut butter as a liquid because ‘shape is dictated by the container.’
- Airport food vendors don’t actually compete with each other. Often they’re just different licensed brands run by the same monopoly concessions company (be it HMSHost, Delaware North, OTG, or Paradies Lagardère).
- Airports are extracting significant rent for access to consumers who skew wealthy, and kicking revenue back to the airlines who serve a terminal, forcing vendors to charge a premium to cover costs.
If there’s a poor tax in air travel, which while increasingly small-d democratic since deregulation compared to what it was before, it’s generally driven by a combination of federal and local governments.
That said, the very notion of frequent flyer status implies frequent travel, which is associated with above-average income. Being a lucrative consumer desirable for premium brands is not something available to those without discretionary income. And those brands will rebate a portion of your spend to you in the form of perks or discounts, so bigger perks and discounts are generally available to those who spend more.
The notion that an ‘$18 glass of airport wine’ is a poor tax is especially bizarre. Don’t drink! It’s hardly a necessary expense. And inflight wifi is increasingly affordable or free, just don’t fly American Airlines. Delta and JetBlue do not charge extra. Alaska, Southwest and United price at $8 (and United is moving to free, with faster wifi than anyone but Hawaiian and JSX which also offer it free).
If air travel were too expensive, Spirit Airlines wouldn’t be in bankruptcy!
Well said, Gary. How ‘woke’ of you to still care about the ‘poors’ –keep in mind, unless you are a centi-millionaire, you’re closer to a ‘peasant’ these days. Enjoyed your ‘dig’ on Spirit at the end. Nice 3-3 seat configurations with no-recline on the modern ‘chariot of the proletariat’ (their a321).
You may owe @AndyS an apology for the ‘small-d’ comment. We gotta be more kind to each other!
The poor are poor in America because they are either stupid, lazy or both.
@AndyS
Point taken… ‘small-d’ indeed.
It appears Andy S has a middle initial S as well.
@1990
Much like with Everything you continue to repeat the talking points fed to you through your indoctrination.
@AndyS
Indoctrination? Oh, like how a disproportionate number of actual pedophiles happen to be right-wingers in red states targeting underage kids in schools and churches (not the ‘drag queens’).
Totally unrelated, but how is former Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz doing these days? Is he Attorney General yet? Or, maybe he found a way to cash-in on a crypto scam, instead. ‘Nice’ guy.
Please, do keep your blood pressure up. Y’all come back now, ya’ear!
@1990
There you go again.
Actually my friend the facts show that despite being only 2% of the lgbt people make up near 40% of pedophiles attacks. The light movement has been attached to this problem since it’s early days when NAMBLA was at the fire to ride parades.
Most early “queer theorists” including the father of them all Magnus Hirschfeld were all avoid and unapologetic pedos.
@AndyS
Indoctrination, indeed. Since you bring up Hirschfeld, I see you are well-versed in 1930s Germany. Care to share your personal thoughts on eugenics next? Yikes.
LGBTQ+ people are not ‘the problem’; scapegoating or getting ‘rid’ of any group of people solves nothing. I know, I know.. your ‘team’ is about try, again.
At least you included a Reagan-Carter reference at the top. Those were decent leaders, both of them. I obviously prefer one’s policies over the other’s. The current guy does not stack up at all.
To those following along, Gary posts about social issues within the context of the travel industry all the time–it’s inherently ‘political’ since it deals with people, power, and money. If you can’t handle the heat, get outta the kitchen.
The “poor tax” also shows up in the airline and hotel loyalty program game. Those with higher income with good credit scores can travel more cheaply and more comfortably than those with lower incomes and subject to lower credit lines because they can play the loyalty program credit/charge card game more easily and extensively for way more points and other travel goodies.
The Amex card annual fee is a tax on poor people who think they are rich.
just don’t fly American Airlines
Words to live by.
When did air travel become a guarantee right? News flash to the morons that think everyone should have $39 fares. Airplanes are expensive to operate and maintain. Should airlines get endless government bailouts when their revenues can’t cover their costs?
Want to live the good life? Acquire marketable skills. Work your ass off. Stay out of trouble. Or you can just sit on your ass waiting for your EBT card to be refilled.
Experienced travelers eat before arriving at the airport.
And looking at most Americans these days, missing a meal or two would do them a world of good.
If you look at verobonds “threads” feed (because of course x.com is too mean for her little feelings).
It’s full of Marxist platitudes and talking points. So I wouldn’t put too much stock on it hat a subscriber of the perpetual grievance industry has to say.
a lot of words to say “you dont have to pay the airlines for small things if youre paying them extra for big things”.
@1990 – if you hadn’t been here for ages I’d assume you were someone playing a character to make leftists look bad.
I agree with the commentator. As they say the rich get richer…
This is all just plain silly. Air travel is not a right. Before deregulation, I took Greyhound more than once. I traveled by train. Traveling by car was the norm for families.
We have become so accustomed to cheap air travel that it feels like punishment when it’s not in the budget.
@AndyS
Classic you. Attack the person, and ignore the substance of their argument. I can play that, too. After all, it sure took you awhile to actually read Gary’s post (kinda ‘lazy’ of you, eh?). Andy, you’re often so quick to shotgun a hate-filled comment about ‘DEI’ or whatever, but rarely do you say anything about the actual topic in a post. Well, today is an exception, even if it was misguided.
So, since we’ve been talking economics, are you excited for those new tariffs (starting February 1)? That’ll be an actual ‘poor tax,’ though we will all pay it. Funny how our allies and neighbors get the higher rates, 25%, while China gets only 10% (what happened to ‘tough on China’?). Surely, this will help lower the cost of living (you know, the whole ‘inflation’ thing that people bitched about and based their votes on). Looking forward to all the new ‘I did that’ stickers on everything.
Hey 1990. Your a dick
And before you ask, you weren’t worth the apostrophe
@Adam
You made my day. Thank you.
“If air travel were too expensive, Spirit Airlines wouldn’t be in bankruptcy!” is pithy. But that statement comes across as sort of glib, as in economic reality a company providing a product to the market can go bankrupt even while or because market-clearing prices from the company and/or its competitors are “too expensive” for consumers/buyers.
Except that a lot of people with status are poor.
People with status fly around doing their corporate overlords bidding, often making 30/40k a year.
They could never afford 99% of the tickets they fly.
Few people making $40K to $50K have a job with considerable travel. If you so desire to travel a lot and want a job to do so then get a job that entails lots of travel. Then you can and complain how tired you’re because the flight got in 3 hours late, you got 4 hours of sleep and had to be in front of a customer at 8AM.
I grew up in the 70s and both of my parents had excellent salaries. We did at most one flight a year and never did my parents impart to us that we were “due” air travel.
If you’re so concerned that poor people can’t afford to fly then donate your miles to a poor family and give them some cash to go to Disney.
I still haven’t seen nor can find the data on the number of American Express – particularly platinum users that are in the Armed Services and get their card for free. I’d love to see that data. Also then the number that are essentially getting into Centurion lounges for free (due to this).