Jim Flaherty taunts math idiots

Federal Finance Minister, Jim Flaherty recently announced that while not all election promises will be met with the first budget, the government will "immediately" slash the Goods & Services Tax by 1%.

This decision causes more anxiety than relief. Afterall, how much of a difference will this make on most purchases? If your favourite retail store had a sale claiming to reduce merchandise by 1%, how excited would you be?

Meanwhile, Flaherty has saddled Canadians with the difficult task of mentally calculating how much 14% more will cost in total. 15% tax is so much easier than 14% tax.

For instance, if X cost $20, then with 15% tax, I would calculate:
$20 + $2 (10%) + $1 (5%) = $23 total

Now, with 14% tax, my mind goes:
$20 + $2 (10%) + ...abortabortabort...cell phone calculator is too embarrassing... runawayrunaway!

I predict a drop in the economy by the same percentage of the population that dropped math after Grade 11.