Charles Ross

“My commute to work is only about 10 minutes, but I frequently go out of town to visit friends and family in Indiana or Kankakee and gas is $1 to $1.50 cheaper out there. The gas taxes and gas prices hit me really hard because now it costs almost $100 to fill up and before I was filling up for $40.”

“And I only make so much every week. So when the cost of food and gas go up and fewer people are coming in for cuts, it’s making it really difficult to just survive day to day.”

“[For] supplies like hair oil, neck ties or Barbicide, we have a hard time getting them and prices for everything have gone up. On a good week, I might run out of supplies every three days. On slower weeks, they might last a week or two. I have to buy everything myself and I have a hard time with some items because they’re out of stock or they’re not restocking as quickly. We always get it, but it’s taking longer.”

“Everything is going up and people are seeing certain services, like hair, as less important. So they might wait an extra week to get serviced. If they usually come in once a week, now they might come twice a month – which hurts our bottom line on top of the fact that the cost of everything has gone up.”

“It’s really unfair that they doubled the gas tax. I feel like people behind the scenes that are already rich are using the middle class and poor to stay in that position. Politicians don’t feel it as much because they’re already in a good position, but they’re adding extra pain for people already struggling.”

“And it is terrible that businesses are facing more tax hikes because of the unemployment trust fund and after the election. We, as small businesses, are already trying to survive from COVID and now inflation and supply chain issues. I feel the government keeps taking from people that are only making pennies or dollars, taking from those that don’t have them. The high taxes here hurt lower- and middle-income families and small businesses.”

“If they lower taxes and remove automatic tax hikes, more people will want to come here because people want to go wherever the money is, where they can make some money.”

“That’s why people are leaving.”

“Chicago has a bad reputation because everyone talks about the violence, so businesses don’t want to come to Chicago. If we can fix our reputation, our image and our taxes, I’m sure more people will want to come do business here because it’s a beautiful city.”

Charles Ross
Barber
Chicago, Illinois