The Pink Tax. (not what you think)

[thundley4]

Skidmore (33,312 posts)    Wed Apr 22, 2015, 07:27 PM
The Pink Tax

http://mic.com/articles/115922/the-secret-tax-screwing-women-out-of-thousands-of-dollars-over-a-lifetime


The Secret Tax Screwing Women Out of Thousands of Dollars Over a Lifetime

The pink tax refers to the extra money tacked onto products and services targeted at women. It's what makes Gillette charge almost a dollar more for women's shaving cream even though it's essentially the same product as men's. The worst part? The price gouging is almost inescapable, affecting everyday products like razors, shampoos and deodorant. In fact, a 2010 consumer report found that personal hygiene products can be up to 50% more expensive for women as they are for men. Often these products are the same brand and contain the same active ingredients. The only difference is their smell.

The tax extends to clothing, too: Women's plus-size items at stores like Old Navy are more expensive than standard items, but such a price distinction doesn't exist for men. Dry cleaning services also exhibit price discrimination, charging more for women's shirts than a men's shirts "even if they are smaller and made of the same cloth," according to the New York Times....more

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026551364

And i have to call BS on the part about big and tall men's clothing not costing more.  Every store I know of charges more for them because they use more fabric.

Partly because they are cheaper but also because they are less likely to have fragrances added - and they are NOT pink. Since I am very allergic to fragrances, that is essential and it is harder to find "women's" products that don't stink.

I used to buy men's shirts because for the money they were better made and held up better. I got in an argument with a dry cleaner's in the mid 1970s because they had a big sign with a sale on cleaning men's shirts but they charged me the price for women's shirts. Since my shirts were men's, I didn't get their logic that because I - a woman - wore them I should pay more than if a man wore the same shirts. To this day, I am reluctant to buy anything that needs dry cleaning or to use a dry cleaner because of my bad experience with that one decades ago!

Throw in a dry-cleaner bouncy.  How did they know you wore them?

Taitertots (6,815 posts)
2. If the price matters so much just buy the "men's" product

Does the price difference exist because women are willing to pay more for products that are more desirable to them.

Ding, ding, ding. Blind squirrel alert. 

[obumazombie]

Even thought the thread was exactly as the OP said, I was hoping it was what I was thinking.
I was hoping it was a thread about code pink.
But since it wasn't, let's all marvel at the DUmmie intellectual firepower being brought to bear on the gender card.

[Carl]

Simply saying 2 products are basically the same has no bearing on production costs and retail pricing.

If packaging or formulation is even slightly different,then recovery of cost,which includes factory square footage assessment against sales figures will dictate a different price.

Add in the willingness to pay for a product for whatever reasons and you have a market price.   

[diesel driver]

Simply saying 2 products are basically the same has no bearing on production costs and retail pricing.

If packaging or formulation is even slightly different,then recovery of cost,which includes factory square footage assessment against sales figures will dictate a different price.

Add in the willingness to pay for a product for whatever reasons and you have a market price.

Add to this the scores of women that willingly buy these products, and the fact many of them may be married to/living with a man, it then becomes a tax on men as well.  I'll call it, The Pink and Blue Tax.

[Carl]

What a DUmbass thinks a government planned economy and existence will be for it.


What a government planned economy and existence is.

[FiddyBeowulf]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026551364


Throw in a dry-cleaner bouncy.  How did they know you wore them?

If PhDD wore them, they would know.

[JakeStyle]

And i have to call BS on the part about big and tall men's clothing not costing more.  Every store I know of charges more for them because they use more fabric.

Yep.  I wear tall sizes and XXL shirts, and they are more expensive than the regular sizes.

[SVPete]

Oh, cry me a river! Are DU-folk recycling 1970s-vintage feminist whines?

Higher price clothing? Higher cost dry cleaning? Go for plainer styles and fabrics, and avoid designer labels.

Women's "Plus" sizes cost more but men's big & tall sizes do not? BS! And I'm 6' tall and used to weigh close to 350 lbs., so I'm contradicting from experience. One thing I've noticed in doing running/walking races the past couple of years is that while race T-shirts are generally included in the registration fee, there is usually a surcharge for sizes XXL and larger (for men and women).

Don't like the higher prices for women's razors and shavers? Buy what men buy: nobody will notice; the quality will probably be better.

But let's get back to something more fundamental: 1.) taxes are charged by government, not private businesses; 2.) many/most taxes are unavoidable (without risking fines and imprisonment); 3.) if the higher prices for women's products were indeed not due to the higher cost of producing those items, somebody by now would have made a huge fortune by undercutting those artificially high prices, and forced competitors to follow suit or lose a lot of business.

Equivocation and economic ignorance!

[thundley4]

For general wearing around the house, doing yard work or whatever, my wife will buy men's jeans.  Two reason for that, actually. Not only are they cheaper, but men's jeans are usually the size they are marked.

With women's clothes, you can buy 5 different brands of jeans all, the same style and size, but not all of them will fit right.

[J P Sousa]

Simply saying 2 products are basically the same has no bearing on production costs and retail pricing.

If packaging or formulation is even slightly different,then recovery of cost,which includes factory square footage assessment against sales figures will dictate a different price.
Add in the willingness to pay for a product for whatever reasons and you have a market price.

How true. I saw a comparison of common products produced by the same manufacturer but sold under different labels/packaging and sold with different prices.

[Skul]

Well crap.
I thought they were fixin' to talk about taxin' some assets of Ho's.
Dammit!

[Zathras]

What a DUmbass thinks a government planned economy and existence will be for it.


What a government planned economy and existence is.

Actually, if you want to see what liberals truly want, watch the movie Elysium with Matt Damon and Jodi Foster.