Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States • Hacker News Board

Re: Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States

#161

Post by cuuupid » Mon, Aug 25, 2025, 6:46 PM UTC

cheema33 wrote: post #34

This needs to be repeated. Tariffs are a tax on ordinary citizens. Unlike regular taxes, tariffs are not progressive and therefore benefit the wealthy. These are the sort of things the poor and middle class voted for. To make the rich, richer. And then turn around and complain that rich are getting richer and they are getting poorer.

Everyone has been repeating this for months but inflation remains relatively normal so prices are not rising. Maybe it's a delayed effect that we won't see until later in the year, but at this point it is a theory and far from a fact, not something that needs to be repeated.

We have already observed that the opposite does not hold - in 2017 we slashed corporate income tax by 14% across the board, roughly the same as the tariffs but with far more surface area, and yet prices did not react and the benefits were not passed along to the consumer.

All we _know_ right now is that this is going to negatively impact economic growth by hitting corporations, the same way slashing corporate income tax positively impacted economic growth by benefitting corporations.

Re: Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States

#162

Post by hdgvhicv » Mon, Aug 25, 2025, 6:46 PM UTC

CamperBob2 wrote: post #112

colechristensen wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's quite the opposite. Tariffs are flat taxes on corporations AND can't be avoided with the tax shenanigans all big corporations use and many small ones can't. Implementation and motivation details aside I'm in favor of small tariffs for all but the most equal trade partners. Corporate taxes have the problem of small business paying much more proportionally than large ones and a flat tax on businesses that…

Corporations don't pay taxes. They pass them on to their customers: us. And applying tariffs to tools and raw materials when you're supposed to be trying to bring manufacturing back to your country is... well, let's just say any government stupid enough to do that isn't likely to improve things in any other respect.

Invisible hand forces prices down.

If tarrifs on imported goods are high then people choose non imported goods (which might be substitutes for goods which can’t be made in America) as there are no tarrifs.

They are dangerous though. If country A stops selling to US it sells cheaper to other countries. It also stops importing from the US (and chooses subsidies).

Overall everyone loses out - at least in theory, as everyone uses worse substitutes.

Re: Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States

#163

Post by Scoundreller » Mon, Aug 25, 2025, 6:46 PM UTC

franze wrote: post #52

Austria, too. I know somebody working there in mid-management. They say the don't care about high or low taxes on the parcels they transport, but they need a straight forward way to execute, and there just is none.

This is the issue for postal systems.

In every country in the world, you could send a package by post and the receiving country’s customs will assess duty/taxes/admin fees and charge the recipient as the default procedure.

As of later this week, the US will not do that procedure (or allegedly charge some absurd flat rate, like $50-$200 on even a $1 package).

Sending postal systems don’t want to deal with the aftermath of rejected/refused packages. And it’s unknown if US Customs and US Postal Service is even capable of charging that flat rate anyway.

Re: Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States

#164

Post by ActorNightly » Mon, Aug 25, 2025, 6:46 PM UTC

gosub100 wrote: post #96

cheema33 wrote: post #34

This needs to be repeated. Tariffs are a tax on ordinary citizens. Unlike regular taxes, tariffs are not progressive and therefore benefit the wealthy. These are the sort of things the poor and middle class voted for. To make the rich, richer. And then turn around and complain that rich are getting richer and they are getting poorer.

[flagged]

There hasn't been a far left leader elected in US, even on a state level.

Secondly,the point of a tariff in a normal political climate is to bring manufacturing back home. This won't happen in the current administration.

And don't confuse liberals with far left.

Re: Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States

#165

Post by LastTrain » Mon, Aug 25, 2025, 6:46 PM UTC

helloooooooo wrote: post #116

cheema33 wrote: post #34

This needs to be repeated. Tariffs are a tax on ordinary citizens. Unlike regular taxes, tariffs are not progressive and therefore benefit the wealthy. These are the sort of things the poor and middle class voted for. To make the rich, richer. And then turn around and complain that rich are getting richer and they are getting poorer.

I don’t think anyone here has yet come to the realization that ending rampant consumerism is the whole damn point of the tariffs.

Yeah gilding the Oval Office really drives the message home.

“Trump calmly reminds nation that desire is the truth of all suffering” - Onion

Re: Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States

#166

Post by dudefeliciano » Mon, Aug 25, 2025, 6:47 PM UTC

helloooooooo wrote: post #116

cheema33 wrote: post #34

This needs to be repeated. Tariffs are a tax on ordinary citizens. Unlike regular taxes, tariffs are not progressive and therefore benefit the wealthy. These are the sort of things the poor and middle class voted for. To make the rich, richer. And then turn around and complain that rich are getting richer and they are getting poorer.

I don’t think anyone here has yet come to the realization that ending rampant consumerism is the whole damn point of the tariffs.

This is a ridiculous attempt at sanewashing. When has Trump or anyone in the GOP EVER stated that they want to end consumerism?

Re: Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States

#167

Post by Scoundreller » Mon, Aug 25, 2025, 6:47 PM UTC

thm wrote: post #92

franze wrote: post #52

Austria, too. I know somebody working there in mid-management. They say the don't care about high or low taxes on the parcels they transport, but they need a straight forward way to execute, and there just is none.

Unless they're declared as gift <$100 or sent via Express.

Americans going to be receiving a lot of $99 gifts!

Re: Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States

#168

Post by Scoundreller » Mon, Aug 25, 2025, 6:48 PM UTC

Retric wrote: post #149

arghwhat wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tariffs like this is a market regulation that the people pays for. It doesn't "benefit the wealthy" because it's not progressive, it benefits the wealthy that have investments in the tariffed industry by distorting the market to their advantage instead of having to be competitive on a level playing field. The rest of the wealthy are equally annoyed by the tariffs as everyone else, possibly more so as they see their i…

It benefits the wealthy by applying to a smaller percentage of their spending. You can easily avoid all tariffs on a 100 million dollar yacht built outside the US, and you don’t pay it for a personal chef etc.

Best part is, I don’t even have to pay it on the work of the personal chef I import!

Re: Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States

#169

Post by nine_k » Mon, Aug 25, 2025, 6:48 PM UTC

mullingitover wrote: post #11

favflam wrote: post #3

This situation feels dumb. I feel like I am watching idiots cheer on someone doing parkor and that person getting his teeth smashed on a wall. Like, what is the point?

"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard." - H. L. Mencken

No learning, and if fact, no stable control, is possible without negative feedback.

Voters are bound to a make serious mistake time to time, and make conclusions from the outcome. This negative feedback is vital, as long as it's not fatal. (That latter seems to be needing serious attention lately.)

Re: Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States

#170

Post by stouset » Mon, Aug 25, 2025, 6:49 PM UTC

ActorNightly wrote: post #153

helloooooooo wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think anyone here has yet come to the realization that ending rampant consumerism is the whole damn point of the tariffs.

[flagged]

It's absolutely insane.

I know we don't want HN to devolve into political bickering, but this is a deeply important meta-observation about what's happening in our country right now. Trump's stochastically random decisions are so inscrutable, but his following is so cult-like, that his followers are forced to flail around to try and find any plausible justification for these actions.

You'd think that at some point the sheer effort of this would trigger some sort of introspection, but it never seems to come. Someone, somewhere, latches onto an explanation that's catchy enough, vague enough, and impossible to disprove enough, that the tribe can take the explanation at face value and latch onto it, no matter how thin.

This will be studied for a long, long time.