*smile*
Gee, there's lots of things about US taxes that I didn't know! Thanks for
all input!

As a comparison I can tell you that in Sweden they put on 25 % of taxes on
all merchandise except books (5 %) and food (18 %). In addition we have duty
an most privately imported stuff and extra taxes on for example gas. Current
pricing on gas is 11 SEK per liter, approximately 5 USD per gallon.