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Amazon Rules Out Displaying Tariff Impact After White House Attack

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Re: Amazon Rules Out Displaying Tariff Impact After White House Attack

#31

Post by pfdietz »

hapticmonkey wrote: post #26
mmcconnell1618 wrote: post #8

There is no regulation or legislation that is telling Amazon they can/can't or should/shouldn't post this information. Amazon appears to be responding to the wishes of the President out of fealty or fear. The threat of a negative response by the President is enough to change the behavior of the company.

Let’s not also forget that Apple and Google are currently illegally distributing the TikTok app in their platforms. Despite a law passed by Congress and upheld by the supreme court that this shouldn’t be happening. But I guess the president, with no legal basis, gets to just order an extension and pinky promise not to enforce it. This is the new crazy dynamic between the administration and tech companies. https://www…

[flagged]

Re: Amazon Rules Out Displaying Tariff Impact After White House Attack

#32

Post by nickjj »

Politics aside, how could they decide not to show it?

If something cost $50 yesterday and now suddenly it's $75 or $100 with no explanation wouldn't that make more people think it's inflation which in turn has its own set of negative impacts?

No one is just going to blindly forget a massive price hike on a wide range of things.

All this does is allow businesses to raise their prices arbitrarily and blame tarrifs on the side if anyone complains. Basically the same thing that happened with inflation after covid. I guess this explains why they are not showing it. If that's not the truth, that's ok. That's what happens when you're not transparent. People will make assumptions based on their beliefs.

Re: Amazon Rules Out Displaying Tariff Impact After White House Attack

#33

Post by [deleted] »

theoreticalmal wrote: post #24
ourmandave wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apparently Amazon didn't get the memo on Jan 20th that all decisions must begin and end with "How will this affect the Emperor's image?" It used to be limited to the state run channel Fox News. Even they would screw up once and a while. Depending on the severity, they'd either be dragged on X or receive an unhappy on-air call from the Palace in Mar-a-largo.

[flagged]

[deleted]

Re: Amazon Rules Out Displaying Tariff Impact After White House Attack

#34

Post by jjallen »

A thought I had is that they shouldn't show the "impact", they should simply show the tariff that was paid for a given product. Let the consumers develop their own facts, knowledge and biases about the actual effect.

They could also show the pre-tariff and post-tariff prices; that would be the most helpful thing. Or a price chart, which would be interesting ex-tariff.

Re: Amazon Rules Out Displaying Tariff Impact After White House Attack

#35

Post by throw0101a »

Someone made the observation that if the WH is proud of the tariffs and think they are good policy to bring back manufacturing (or whatever), then wouldn't they want their (according-to-them) awesome idea to be as widely publicized as possible?

If tariffs are a good thing why not allow them to be 'advertised' that much more? Don't you want credit for the good idea you came up with?

Re: Amazon Rules Out Displaying Tariff Impact After White House Attack

#36

Post by yalogin »

redserk wrote: post #10
mmcconnell1618 wrote: post #8

There is no regulation or legislation that is telling Amazon they can/can't or should/shouldn't post this information. Amazon appears to be responding to the wishes of the President out of fealty or fear. The threat of a negative response by the President is enough to change the behavior of the company.

To me, this calls into question to what degree Amazon will willfully comply with government requests that come in via phone call and not a warrant. From the Amazon shopping side, you can build quite a profile on someone based on their past order history. Want to find protesters? There’s been a number of folks who don’t usually order office supplies suddenly ordering the thick Sharpie markers in a certain area... Hope…

This is a very good point. This puts AWS in a bad light. We should assume Amazon will, for example, mobilize the whole company to find a needle in a haystack on AWS if the president or his staff calls.

Re: Amazon Rules Out Displaying Tariff Impact After White House Attack

#37

Post by Jagerbizzle »

1oooqooq wrote: post #25
a2128 wrote: post #20

Whenever I visit the US I get annoyed that the prices listed on the store shelves aren't actually what I pay; in Europe all prices are VAT-inclusive, but in the US none of the prices include sales tax, they're all broken out separately at checkout. I found this unreasonable and confusing until one day I read a conservative argument that this is actually a good thing, because it stops the government from increasing sa…

i hated it at first, but then started to appreciate how it gives visibility on the cost of senator salaries and the military.

US Senators make $193,400 per year and there are 100 of them. This ~20mil doesn't exactly stack up to the ~1.8 trillion of US government discretionary spending (or ~4 trillion of 'mandatory' spending).

Re: Amazon Rules Out Displaying Tariff Impact After White House Attack

#38

Post by watwut »

a2128 wrote: post #20

Whenever I visit the US I get annoyed that the prices listed on the store shelves aren't actually what I pay; in Europe all prices are VAT-inclusive, but in the US none of the prices include sales tax, they're all broken out separately at checkout. I found this unreasonable and confusing until one day I read a conservative argument that this is actually a good thing, because it stops the government from increasing sa…

That conservative argument is just an excuse. The price is not shown in full, to make it harder for customer to know how much they are spending before they are at the counter.

It is fully possible to show full price along with tariffs and taxes, if you want to show them. It does not necessitates misleading prices. This is just conservatives being pro-manipulation and against informed customers.

When I was ordering package to a country that had tariffs, an online store shown me item price, shipping, tariffs and total price. Nothing new or shocking about showing a full price along with its breakdown.

Re: Amazon Rules Out Displaying Tariff Impact After White House Attack

#39

Post by KoolKat23 »

1oooqooq wrote: post #25
a2128 wrote: post #20

Whenever I visit the US I get annoyed that the prices listed on the store shelves aren't actually what I pay; in Europe all prices are VAT-inclusive, but in the US none of the prices include sales tax, they're all broken out separately at checkout. I found this unreasonable and confusing until one day I read a conservative argument that this is actually a good thing, because it stops the government from increasing sa…

i hated it at first, but then started to appreciate how it gives visibility on the cost of senator salaries and the military.

It doesn't really as our minds can't truly comprehend the population or volume of goods sold. Without that it's meaningless.

Re: Amazon Rules Out Displaying Tariff Impact After White House Attack

#40

Post by Hasnep »

pfdietz wrote: post #31
hapticmonkey wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let’s not also forget that Apple and Google are currently illegally distributing the TikTok app in their platforms. Despite a law passed by Congress and upheld by the supreme court that this shouldn’t be happening. But I guess the president, with no legal basis, gets to just order an extension and pinky promise not to enforce it. This is the new crazy dynamic between the administration and tech companies. https://www…

[flagged]

That's not really whataboutism, it's more "yesandism", or just adding to the conversation.
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