[damnesian]

No question that it is coming- it is, in effect, already here- the expectation among consumers has been teed up by the media. In a way, this is just sugar for the coming pill. But the inevitable backlash really ought to surprise no vendor who employs it. Where it will be most cruel is at the margins of society. They bear the brunt of all inequalities. Take the troubling precedent of the poor tax: late fees and interest on late or incompleted payments due to lack of funds. Is that any indication of future appetite in the economy to, for instance, penalize a poor person for buying less food than someone else? If we just let the market determine these things, inequity could be more and more severe. Will we just let it?