Plastic Bag Tax in Washington DC Hailed as a Success

Miscellaneous General
1

http://money.cnn.com/2010/10/04/news/economy/DC_bag_tax/index.htm

“District residents have been charged 5 cents for each disposable bag they pick up at the grocery store or local market. 4 cents of the tax goes to the city, the retailer is allowed to keep 1 cent.”

Its not raising the revenue they expected it to raise, and still its hailed as a giant success! The reason? Shoppers are using fewer bags.

Sounds like the criminals who setup this tax would have hailed this as a success no matter what happened.

If their goal was to have the disposable bag use fall, they should have just placed a ban on them.

Would have been much quicker and more in line with the results they were after.

2

Inquiring minds want to know if the retailers have lost any revenue in the area of DC vs near the area? I can state with confidence that no person in the DC who is in favor of this stupid proposal could answer my question. And I find it amazing that CNN MONEY did not bother to ask either.

3

it certainly doesn’t seem like it could help those businesses that are victims of the tax

4

i think it is a nice idea!

5

Is this sarcasm?