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US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China, 20% on EU

bbc.com

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Re: US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China, 20% on EU

#691

Post by TehCorwiz »

lumb63 wrote: post #625

Everyone is quick to deride this move as stupid. I don’t disagree that there are downsides to the approach, but there is a set of very real national problems that this might address. For instance, globalization and offshoring of production has made goods cheaper for consumers, but what about the former domestic producers who could not compete, and do not have the skills or capital to find a new job which pays as well…

Tax corporations and the wealthy since they receive the majority of the benefits. They benefit from a trained healthy workforce, social safety nets, infrastructure like roads and electricity and water. They benefit form the US dollar being the reserve currency for most of the world. I literally cannot list all the ways these two groups benefit in a real tangible outsized way than any other individual.

Trump wants to eliminate all federal taxes. That's NOT going to reduce the deficit. The current republican spending bill includes a 4.5T tax cut to the wealthy and businesses, while cutting only 2T in spending from entitlements WE PAY INTO SEPARATE FROM TAXES. I am entitled to the money that me and my employer pay into Social Security, it's an investment, not a tax.

Let's stop taking from working people who are quickly falling further and further into poverty and start taking from the people who literally own everything!

Re: US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China, 20% on EU

#692

Post by hnthrow90348765 »

iteratethis wrote: post #75

This won't bring home manufacturing but let's say that it will... The US doesn't have the people to do the actual manufacturing. I saw a video recently explaining how sectors like the military, construction and the automotive industry each have 100K+ positions that they are unable to fill. A return to manufacturing adds to that shortage. Apparently there's some 7 million young men of working age that are...missing in…

No one will want to do lower income jobs while the cost of living is high and continues to rise. Wear and tear on the body is also not compensated, not to mention healthcare being expensive. Meanwhile, I do CRUD apps and work remotely 20/hours a week with no bodily harm (on the contrary, I have time to work out and make bad posts on HN)

No one in their right mind is going to choose manufacturing over what I have if they can do both, and most people could honestly learn to do CRUD apps. Even if my salary were to go down by 5-10% yoy due to people moving in, I'm still in a better position for the other reasons mentioned. I'd have to be below manufacturing and blue collar wages to get me to switch.

The only sensible explanation is that they're trying to force people to have to take these jobs by crashing the globalized parts of the economy because they are obviously better than starving and dying homeless.

All this assuming that Trump isn't just intentionally trying to destroy the country.

Re: US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China, 20% on EU

#693

Post by greenavocado »

tim333 wrote: post #680
TaurenHunter wrote: post #599

I don't see anyone mentioning that the United States needs to manage its massive national debt, currently in the trillions, by issuing Treasury securities. These securities mature at varying intervals and require continuous "rolling" or refinancing to pay off old debt with new borrowing. Significant rollovers are expected from April through September 2025, with additional short-term maturities due by June. Higher int…

>The country is at risk of a debt spiral. The US owes US dollars and can also issue US dollars. There are complications but it's not like you run up a credit card and can't pay.

Exactly. The Zimbabwe model

Re: US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China, 20% on EU

#694

Post by donohoe »

Are we surprised? If anyone watched the presidential debates VP Kamala Harris told us about this.

From September 2024:

"What Goldman Sachs has said is that Donald Trump's plan would make the economy worse. Mine would strengthen the economy. What the Wharton School has said is Donald Trump's plan would actually explode the deficit. Sixteen Nobel laureates have described his economic plan as something that would increase inflation and by the middle of next year would invite a recession."

Emphasis on that last line:

  would increase inflation and by the middle of next year would invite a recession.
btw the US Congress can stop this anytime they want.

Re: US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China, 20% on EU

#696

Post by sounds »

iteratethis wrote: post #75

This won't bring home manufacturing but let's say that it will... The US doesn't have the people to do the actual manufacturing. I saw a video recently explaining how sectors like the military, construction and the automotive industry each have 100K+ positions that they are unable to fill. A return to manufacturing adds to that shortage. Apparently there's some 7 million young men of working age that are...missing in…

> sectors like the military, construction and the automotive industry each have 100K+ positions that they are unable to fill. A return to manufacturing adds to that shortage.

Feel free to offer higher wages than the previous stagnant wages.

Re: US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China, 20% on EU

#697

Post by TaurenHunter »

tim333 wrote: post #680
TaurenHunter wrote: post #599

I don't see anyone mentioning that the United States needs to manage its massive national debt, currently in the trillions, by issuing Treasury securities. These securities mature at varying intervals and require continuous "rolling" or refinancing to pay off old debt with new borrowing. Significant rollovers are expected from April through September 2025, with additional short-term maturities due by June. Higher int…

>The country is at risk of a debt spiral. The US owes US dollars and can also issue US dollars. There are complications but it's not like you run up a credit card and can't pay.

Yes, but if they let get into a debt spiral, the only solution becomes devaluation of the dollar to the point of hyperinflation. Only then debt is reduced, but it would be terrible for everybody except a few.

Re: US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China, 20% on EU

#698

Post by munchler »

Andrex wrote: post #482

Thank you, nonvoters.

Trump is very popular among low-information citizens. If you corralled more of them into voting, he would have won by more. Call me an elitist, but at this point we'd be much better off if ignorant people stopped voting.

Re: US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China, 20% on EU

#700

Post by ccorcos »

cloverich wrote: post #661
lumb63 wrote: post #625

Everyone is quick to deride this move as stupid. I don’t disagree that there are downsides to the approach, but there is a set of very real national problems that this might address. For instance, globalization and offshoring of production has made goods cheaper for consumers, but what about the former domestic producers who could not compete, and do not have the skills or capital to find a new job which pays as well…

> Globalization has played a big role in creating the massive income inequality in our country; it seems like we should fix that. Wouldn't restoring the prior taxes to those with highest incomes, and adding a proper capital gains tax, address this directly? As I've started to accumulate small amounts of wealth I've realized, my capital gains are taxed lower than my income; when I sell my house, I get up to 500k of ga…

Thomas Sowell makes a good argument that the government does a terrible job at redistributing wealth to lift the poor, based on their track record. And so taxing the rich more doesnt actually solve that problem — it just makes politicians and their friends richer.

Also when talking about tariffs reducing demand and inflating prices, I think it’s important to note that’s partly true. It doesn’t raise prices of domestic goods and actually increases demand for domestic goods.

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