Very interesting folks.....In Europe...Restaurants have been the biggest offenders in the underground economy, in fact restaurants have had to use Government bill books, there have been many sting operations, what they Government officials do.....
They ask for customers to show a receipt after leaving the restaurant..........
So France and most other European countries have and or about to lower the HST on restaurant meals...
In France the tax on meals is being slashed......The rate is being lowered from 19.6% to 5.5%....
The reason they are lowering the tax is simple, lower tax, more people eat out, more people get jobs, also it will almost end the huge underground economy in restaurants in Europe....
A short post friends, just more proof how the HST will hurt the restaurant industry, and hurt the B.C. economy. You can read about France slashing their HST here
The Straight Goods
Cheers-Eyes Wide Open
3 comments:
More importantly, we also need to increase the living wage of restaurant workers from a slave labour wage of $8.00/hr to $16.00/hr.
In a way, I don't really feel sorry for the restaurant industry even though they got blindsided by Campbell's decision to adopt the HST and remove their exemption from an exempt status. After all, they have been one of the bigger backers of the BC Liberal Party for years and did all they could to praise the BC Liberal agenda during election campaigns.
There was a song in the late 60's called "The Snake" by Al Wilson. The gist of the song was that this woman found a sick snake, took it home with her and nurtured it back to health and her reward was to be bitten by the now healthy snake with no remorse from the snake as that is what snakes do. Well, the restaurant industry decided to cozy up to Campbell and Co. and have found out what it means to get chummy with a snake.
If the restaurant association operates as most high profile associations, I assume they really represent the big chains such as Earls, White Spot etc. The small independents such as the little cafes, the mom and pop types, probably have little input into their association, if they belong at all.
With this in mind, I have decided to get my fix of restaurant food, which will be less often for obvious reasons, by supporting the little independent establishments, but will shun the big chain-type conglomerates. There are a couple of reasons for this. These independents have probably invested most of their life savings into their venture and I would guess probably pay their employees a little better than the corporate types who are run by bean counters. The other reason is that the big, corporate establishments may eventually have more clout with the government once they see their profits decline.
Let's let the conglomerates feel the pain rather than the little guys for once.
Cam
My community has an underground co-op, where you can buy all your, vegetables, meat, chickens, for meat and eggs, by fall, we will be fully up and running, even winter greenhouses. All we need to buy is, coffee tea and such. We also will buy from local store owners, and will frequent locally owned restaurants. On a fixed income, I had to cancel my bathroom reno, however, I found through the underground, a person who will do it for half the price, for cash. There are plumbers, roofers, electricians, hairdressers, everything a person needs, at half the price. People just need to have a neighborhood meeting, and the underground idea, will take right off.
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