Foreign labor seems to be one of the few things not covered by these import taxes.
that’s because they already spend a shit ton on sponsorships
US companies, consumers are paying for tariffs, not foreign firms
41–50 of 193 posts
Re: US companies, consumers are paying for tariffs, not foreign firms
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
That’s the point. It’s not crazy. Tariffs are regressive taxes. Rich people buy more stuff, sure, but as a percentage of their income they net out as beneficiaries of shifting taxes from income to spending. It’s totally rational if you want to increase taxes on the bottom 80% to subsidize the top 20% (and especially top 5%).
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A tariff across the board is same as a sales tax (rather a value added tax, as it is dependent on the value of goods).
I would love to understand why you think it is punitive for the ultra rich.
Re: US companies, consumers are paying for tariffs, not foreign firms
#43honestly, it’s a little of everything. foreign companies will eat the tariffs to some extent, consumers will shift to less tariffed goods and consumers will pay the tariffs. however, paying the tariffs is essentially paying taxes and the government needs money and there’s nothing wrong with that. this one has the extra sword of helping our other Americans find work and increasing the likelihood that foreign goods wil…
> helping our other Americans find work
In the same way that laws against pumping your own gas help other Americans find work. It makes everyone else poorer instead of naturally created jobs which provide goods and services people want.
> increasing the likelihood that foreign goods will be purchased from allied nations and not totalitarian dictatorships
Citation needed, this round of tariffs have also fallen on our allies
Re: US companies, consumers are paying for tariffs, not foreign firms
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
That’s the point. It’s not crazy. Tariffs are regressive taxes. Rich people buy more stuff, sure, but as a percentage of their income they net out as beneficiaries of shifting taxes from income to spending. It’s totally rational if you want to increase taxes on the bottom 80% to subsidize the top 20% (and especially top 5%).
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Tariff is a sales tax
Re: US companies, consumers are paying for tariffs, not foreign firms
#45A reminder, most tariffs will not be paid because consumers will just shift their spending habits to match or just buy less. Tariffs are a double edged sword because the hurt purchasing power of consumers without really generating much money for the government. The administration is going to focus on the fact that tariffs don't really drive inflation, but are going to miss the forest for the trees: prices won't go up…
The real double-edged sword is that tariffs can be both recessionary and inflationary. Consumers cutting spending habits will slow the economy and trigger layoffs, which in turn will continue slowing the economy. On the flip side, we still import most of our goods because we don't have an industrial base sizable enough–and likely won't for several decades—so those tariffs will drive prices up. It's a positive feedback loop that results in a halting economy.
If the Trump admin was serious about rebuilding the industrial base, they'd be providing subsidies and federal grants, not tariffs. They'd also be sucking money out of the economy by increasing the number and top marginal rates on the income tax and patching loopholes in the corporate tax code. At the same time, they'd be cutting taxes for the bottom 80% of America and providing healthcare and childcare subsidies.
Re: US companies, consumers are paying for tariffs, not foreign firms
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
That’s the point. It’s not crazy. Tariffs are regressive taxes. Rich people buy more stuff, sure, but as a percentage of their income they net out as beneficiaries of shifting taxes from income to spending. It’s totally rational if you want to increase taxes on the bottom 80% to subsidize the top 20% (and especially top 5%).
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How is income tax regressive?
Re: US companies, consumers are paying for tariffs, not foreign firms
#47Everyone focusing on consumer prices. But tariffs also function to incentivize domestic reindustrialization, which has huge national security implications. You see this clearly in the venture space as increased investment interest in hardtech and manufacturing. It's great that the federal government is looking long term again.
Re: US companies, consumers are paying for tariffs, not foreign firms
#48Everyone focusing on consumer prices. But tariffs also function to incentivize domestic reindustrialization, which has huge national security implications. You see this clearly in the venture space as increased investment interest in hardtech and manufacturing. It's great that the federal government is looking long term again.
With the planet-smashing asteroid sized caveat that all these businesses are way harder to start when trying to procure machines and materials and other CapEx is all faces massive tariffs.
Maybe those folks can be competitive within the US given the absurd tariffs. But will they be competitive on any global scale, with those additional headwinds? And if TACO or years pass and tariffs get rescinded, having that massive extra overhead on CapEx is not a good position to be in.
Re: US companies, consumers are paying for tariffs, not foreign firms
#49Crazy that one of the major policy initiatives of the all Republican/Maga government is to impose a huge consumer tax increase. Maybe calling these "import taxes" instead of "tarrifs" would help emphasize that to the average voter?
That’s the point. It’s not crazy. Tariffs are regressive taxes. Rich people buy more stuff, sure, but as a percentage of their income they net out as beneficiaries of shifting taxes from income to spending. It’s totally rational if you want to increase taxes on the bottom 80% to subsidize the top 20% (and especially top 5%).
Which matches the rest of the seeming plutocratic moves afoot in the past 6 months.
Taking huge chunks out of American opportunism (defunding science, health care, education, space, and so much else), blowing a huge chunk out of social welfare programs: that's going to cause amazing downgrades for most people. Paths to success closed, cost of getting by vastly higher. (All while walking over all over habeus corpus, while collecting & colating data of everyone in the homeland, while building concentration camps and tossing random hairdressers in international terrorism dungeons; denigrating the population generally, humiliating basic rights of man.)
But the plutocratic class doesn't really notice the change. The Global Elite E1 Barbarian class (of Michael O Church 3 ladders) doesn't notice or care. They stay about the same, but the sinking tide leaves many other boats grounded.
It sure seems like there's an international conspiracy of the very wealthy to screw over the land of opportunity right now. And there's 219+53 people in congess and two in the White House happily helping aid and abet this pushing opporunity off the cliff.
Fits perfectly hand in glove with the Network State ideology (which seeks to make who you know and what connections you've gathered define your environment) and the Christofascist ideology (which says religion should rule), both of which resent government as it is, which are part of the broader long campaign to "starve the beast". But to regionalize this situation to the US feels like it misses how the real nature of the E1 Global Barbarian Elite's desire to make clear their ascent over all others.