Stupidity tax evasion

David K. Levine opines as to why international data roaming charges are so outrageous:

The international roaming market, lacking competition, is dysfunctional: rather than providing a useful service it taxes consumers one-time lack of awareness of prices.</p>

Most US mobile carriers will welcome you home with a four-digit bill if you don’t turn off data roaming or switch to a temporary plan ahead of time.

Thanks to Verizon’s (not so well advertised) international roaming plan, I only paid $8 for roaming when I spent a week in Vancouver last year. Had I used the default roaming rates, my bill would have gone a lot farther north than I did.

Common sense, you say? Well, according to David’s article, 60 percent of international roamers do not turn off roaming.

Joshua Gans calls it the stupidity tax. Well it is, isn’t it?

Don’t be stupid.