Price display options

I got some simple products loaded and found that everywhere the price is displayed, it shows it European style, with the currency after the number.

First I thought there would be an option for where to put the currency symbol, and then I thought I could change the language file (swap the two parameter just for US English), then I thought I could write a filter to switch it around.
But now I’m realizing that the cart, the widgets, and everywhere the price is displayed are all hardcoded to be a number and a space and a currency.

Wow, what a mess for US dollar.

I think the best way forward is for all the code to use the same function to output the price (which should be the template function). That function should apply a filter. In addition, there could be an option and the language file could be made to easily swap the number and the currency symbol.

Oh, and the tax, which by default is per product, should work the same way. Right now I’m getting () following the price because there is no tax. (And I don’t see a way to apply the tax to the whole order instead of per product.)

Need some documentation! Shopping carts are not intuitive!