I delivered some batteries to the recycling recently, say a couple of dozen AAAs and some odd Cs, weighing approximately 1 lb. For shipping to the recycling plant, I paid $2.50. Plus tax of $0.17. So, taxed when I earn the money to buy the batteries, taxed on the purchase of the batteries, and taxed on the money spent recycling the batteries (and, of course, on the money earned to pay for the recycling of the batteries – which causes the equation to start to look distributive, if not out-right quadratic), which works out to about $10 in taxes on my couple of dozen batteries … And then there’s a recent short-hop cross-border airline trip, on which the tax mark-up was 60% from EIGHT different sets of fees and taxes …