Why is computer hardware so heavily taxed in some countries ?

[Donut417]

22 minutes ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

A dollar something a litre?

Here in Michigan something like the first 30 cents is just taxes. So if gas is only $2.00 a gallon the gas actually costs $1.70, though that doesn't take in the cost of what the gas station paid for it. To also be far, the US has OIL on land vs just the ocean. It just we use a hell of a lot of oil which is why we import it. Canada has an oil supply as well, the oil sands, but it costs way too much to mine it, and with oil prices so low, its not cost effective. 

[dalekphalm]

2 hours ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

Man that just reminds me of how cheap in the grand scheme of things certain every day products are. Take gasoline for example. First you have to build a rig, float it to the middle of the ocean, build an underwater pipeline back to shore, dig multiple holes until you hit oil, pump the oil out and to shore, have it transported via truck/rail/pipeline (the latter being hugely expensive infrastructure) to some place where it's refined, then have it transported again to where it's sold. They're doing all of this for what? A dollar something a litre? Your coffee costs more per litre than that. 

Fracking is super inexpensive. Offshore drilling also is somewhat cheap compared to something like tar sands oil. 

[Donut417]

8 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

Offshore drilling also is somewhat cheap compared to something like tar sands oil. 

I think they need like $50 a barrel to make the tar sands even profitable. Which is why many of those companies have folded. Because oil took a nose dive. 

[Benjamin22044]

Most of the computer parts in other countries are imported from countries like USA and China etc. and this is why they are costly. Not that USA manufactures such products but the country likes to put a heavy tax, earning a lot of money. 

[dalekphalm]

6 hours ago, Donut417 said:

I think they need like $50 a barrel to make the tar sands even profitable. Which is why many of those companies have folded. Because oil took a nose dive. 

Yeah $50/bl is the ballpark for them to make profit. I think they can sell a bit lower and be at cost. 
 

the oil sands were fine when oil was over $100/bl, but now it’s hardly worth it. 

 

And adding more pipelines may not fix that problem - though it might help WCS get a better price compared to WTI (WTI is the “gold standard” for good quality and low cost oil in North America - WCS sells at a pretty steep

discount).